The trial has begun in southern Russia of the only hostage-taker captured alive after the school siege in Beslan last September that left 330 people dead.
24-year old Chechen Nur-Pashi Kulayev faces eight charges, including murder, terrorism and hostage-taking.
The trial, which is expected to last several months, is taking place in Vladikavkaz, the regional capital of the Russian republic of North Ossieta where Beslan is located.
Prosecutors say he was one of more than 30 rebels involved in the three-day siege in September 2004.
The accused has pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. He says he thought he was going to attack a Russian military checkpoint.
In the siege, a group of militants took control of School No 1 on 1 September and held 1,300 people hostage without food or water.
They demanded that Moscow end the conflict in the nearby republic of Chechnya, where Chechen separatists have intermittently waged war with Russian forces for a decade.
The siege ended two days later in a chaotic shootout between the militants, Russian special forces and locals after a massive explosion inside the gym where the hostages were being kept.
330 people are said to have died, including 186 children.
