News

The operation of two small hydropower plants (HPPs) built on the Gegarot River led to a deterioration of water quality. If the authorities fail to stop the HPPs, the river bed will be changed, local residents have threatened.

At the European Football Championship of the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA), which is underway in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), finalists have been defined: the teams of South Ossetia and Western Armenia. 

Jehovah's Witnesses* have reported the arson of a building in the dwelling settlement of Prokhladny, where religious services had been held before the ban of the religious organization. The arson was the result of an information campaign launched by official media, said a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses (the organization has been banned in Russia by the court).

Keeping the Ingush activists, arrested after rallies in Magas, in Nalchik creates problems for their legal defence and meetings with relatives, said Barakh Chemurziev, an activist. He asked human rights defenders to facilitate the transfer of those arrested to Ingushetia.

At the end of the school year, schools of Grozny announced raising money for renovation of premises, pupils' parents report to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, specifying the amounts from 100 to 1500 roubles. The lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" recommend parents to apply to the Prosecutor's Office.

Supporters of the ARF "Dashnaktsutyun" have appeared at the police station in Yerevan and other cities of Armenia and pled guilty of beating up Vardan Arutyunyan, an activist. They stated that they had punished the activist for insulting the supporters of Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia.

Mikhail Kalandiya, accused of killing a schoolboy in Tbilisi, has been placed in custody. His advocate claims that the prosecution has failed to gather sufficient evidence.

A complaint about an ineffective investigation into the murder of Temirlan Machalikashvili during a special operation in the Pankisi Gorge was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Tamta Mikeladze, a human rights defender, has stated today.

Today, Arif Gadjily, the head of the "Musavat" Party, has discovered traces of opening of the grave of Hadji Murad in Azerbaijan and demanded an inspection of this fact.

Gegam Petrosyan, the former deputy commander of the police, the chief of the police headquarters, is charged with murder that was committed during clashes in Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008, investigators reported.

South Ossetia has decided to close the border crossing points with Georgia for the period from June 8 to 11 in connection with the enhanced security measures introduced during the parliamentary elections.

General Manvel Grigoryan, a former deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia, has been transferred to a civilian hospital, the press secretary for the Penitentiary Department reports today. Manvel Grigoryan stays at the resuscitation ward in severe condition, reported a doctor from the medical centre.

The positions of the Azerbaijani army came under fire in the territory bordering Armenia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reports today.

In Kalmykia, three policemen are suspected of involvement in the death of a pensioner, and two of them are detained, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports.

In the course of its 73rd session, the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on the status of refugees from Abkhazia and South Ossetia and has affirmed their right to return to their homes located throughout Georgia. For the first time, Armenia did not take part in voting on the proposed resolution and abstained.

Vadim Kharchenko, a Krasnodar blogger, said that after the attack on him, he turned to a Moscow clinic for a surgery of the stabbed arm. Policemen are seizing surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the incident and search for witnesses.

The ceremony of reburial of the remains of Khadji Murad, held in the village of Khunzakh on June 2, was not in line with the Sharia law, Khadjimurad Donogo, a historian, and Ziyavudin Uvaisov, a lawyer, have stated. Good grounds are needed for such a ceremony, said Imam Akhmad Anchikhsky.

Law enforcement bodies of Chechnya gave no reaction to the statement by Tumso Abdurakhmanov, who reported that a resident of the village of Novye Atagi was seriously wounded by law enforcers. The video about this incident aroused great interest among YouTube users. Investigators must check the information about the crime, Musa Pliev, an advocate, has stated.

Mikhail Kalandiya was accused of killing a schoolboy in Tbilisi after new evidence of his involvement in the crime appeared, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has stated. Kalandiya refuses to plead guilty.

The meeting of Azerbaijani officials with the Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who is preparing a report on political prisoners, has been postponed for three months. By taking advantage of the fact that the lady's visit had been scheduled for the holiday, the authorities have disrupted her speech, human rights defenders assert.