14:04, 11 August 2003

Doctors from blown-up Mozdok Military Hospital wrote letter to President Putin

Doctors from the blown-up Mozdok Military Hospital wrote a letter to President Putin in which they ask to release Artur Arakelyan, an arrested head of the hospital facing a charge of negligence.

Investigators believe Arakelyan could avert the terrorist act. The head of the hospital, in opinion of the prosecutor's office, did not pay due attention to the security of the medical institution. Meanwhile, colleagues of the arrested lieutenant colonel said he had been commissioned only three weeks before the explosion and theoretically he could not have provided the security of the hospital.

Arakekyan had neither time nor resources for it - only 12 soldiers were provided by the Mozdok garrison to guard the building. Survived hospital staff holds that the lieutenant colonel must return to his place, otherwise, medics said, it would be very difficult to restore the institution's activity.

The funeral of the last local resident died in the act of terrorism was held in Mozdok.

Source: Ekho Moskvy Radio