Five women taken into custody after wearing T-shirts blaming Russian president for 2004 siege that left 186 children dead

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Five women wearing T-shirts blaming Vladimir Putin for the Beslan school massacre have been detained during a ceremony commemorating victims of the siege.

Two journalists were also arrested while trying to film the brief protest at the memorial marking the 2004 hostage crisis that left 334 people dead, including 186 children.

As a bell rang near the redbrick ruins of School Number One in the town in the North Ossetia republic of Russia, the women took off their jackets to reveal T-shirts reading “Putin is the executioner of Beslan”.

Four of the women lost children in the siege and one also lost her husband. The fifth woman’s daughter survived the ordeal, in which hostages were held in the sweltering school for nearly 60 hours.

Armed Islamic militants, mostly from the neighbouring Chechnya and Ingushetia republics, stormed into the school on 1 September 12 years ago, the first day of classes, taking about 1,200 children, parents and teachers hostage.

Many of the victims were killed by explosions or gunfire during Russian special forces’ assault on the school, on the third day of the crisis. Some victims’ relatives, and others in North Ossetia and across Russia, blame the authorities for the deaths.

Russian police accused the women of violating a law against unauthorised protests, legislation that denies Russians their constitutional right to free assembly, according to critics.

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They face up to 15 days in custody and potential fines. Two journalists covering the event, the Novaya Gazeta reporter Elena Kostyuchenko and Diana Khachatrian, a correspondent for online news site Takie Dela, were also detained and held in custody for two hours.

The journalists said police prevented them from filming the protesters, blocking the camera’s view and then forcibly taking them into custody. They said police initially told them that their identification documents were suspicious.

The Beslan siege followed the bombings of two Russian airliners and a Moscow train station, which killed a total of 131 people and were blamed on militants from the North Caucasus region, precipitating what Kremlin critics described as steps to curtail political freedoms.

The Beslan commemoration ceremonies, which began on Thursday, will last for three days.

A version of this article first appeared on RFE/RL.