Saudi Link to Beslan Militant

One of the 32 militants who seized the school in Beslan a year ago taking 1,128 people hostage was probably a Saudi called Abu Farukh.

In the first concrete evidence of foreign participation in the school siege which left 331 hostages dead, a law enforcement source, who requested anonymity, said prosecutors found a letter from Abu Farukh to his mother, who is believed to be in Saudi Arabia. "It said goodbye to her and it was signed Abu Farukh," the source said. The militant's full name is not known, but investigators say all the evidence points to him being of Saudi origin.

Witnesses and prosecutors have spoken about a "foreign element" among the dozens of militants who seized the school, yet have declined to provide details.

A series of photographs of 32 dead militants, part of a dossier about the group, includes a picture of Abu Farukh. He appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, while other militants were from the Caucasus. Ten were from neighbouring Ingushetia.

Abu Farukh also appeared on a propaganda video shot in a forest near Beslan in the days before the siege. The video was put on a website run by a foreign militant known as Abu Dzheit. He was killed last year and is suspected of having organised the Beslan siege.