A judge wraps up reading the verdict here in the trial of the sole surviving hostage-taker involved in the 2004 Beslan school massacre with a formal conviction and sentencing expected after a landmark yearlong trial.

Classmates and relatives cry at the grave of a schoolboy killed during the Beslan siege. A judge wraps up reading the verdict in the trial of the sole surviving hostage-taker involved in the 2004 Beslan school massacre with a formal conviction and sentencing expected after a landmark yearlong trial. [AFP]

The chief justice of the supreme court in the province of North Ossetia already stated on May 15 when the verdict reading began that the defendant, 25-year-old Nurpashi Kulayev, "committed" acts of terrorism and murder, indicating that his conviction was virtually a foregone conclusion.

The verdict reading was scheduled to resume Friday at 11 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Kulayev has admitted to being present at Beslan's School Number One on September 1, 2004, when a large group of gunmen reportedly demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya seized more than 1,000 children, parents and teachers and held them hostage inside the school.

But he has denied firing any shots or being directly responsible for any deaths, claiming that had joined the gunmen only at the behest of his elder brother who was among the hostage-takers killed by security forces and that he did not know where they were going or what their plan was.

Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the Beslan school attack, which ended three days after it began in a horrific bloodbath marked by ferocious and chaotic fighting between security forces and the hostage-takers.

The battle ended in the deaths of 331 people, including 186 young children. Of the alleged hostage-takers, 31 were killed and Kulayev was, according to Russian authorities, the only one to be captured alive.

The Russian prosecutor has asked the court to order that Kulayev be put to death. This exceptional request was made in spite of the fact that Russia has had a legal moratorium on the death penalty since 1996.

Russian legal experts predict that the Vladikavkaz court will order that Kulayev be imprisoned for life, but not executed.

Although conviction and sentencing would bring Kulayev's trial to an end, the main federal investigation into the Beslan massacre remains ongoing and was not expected to be wrapped up until later this year.

Many burning questions about how the school seizure could happen and how authorities reacted to it remain open. Families of those killed in the massacre have demanded that top federal government officials also be held to account for their actions -- or lack of them -- during the crisis.