News

The Amnesty International (AI) has stated that the termination of the criminal prosecution of lawyer Mikhail Benyash in the case of obstruction to justice can only be welcomed as a half- measure.

On Wednesday, December 12, in Makhachkala, Murtazali Gasanguseinov went out to a picket aiming to draw attention to his sons' murder case. It ended with a reception at the Mayoralty, where an official of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) explained how to correctly apply for a rally.

The attack on employees of the "Rosgvardia" (Russian National Guard) was the second clash of law enforcers with alleged militants in Nazran, and the eighth armed incident in the republic since the start of the year.

In the evening on Tuesday, December 11, an explosion occurred at the "Kovcheg" Shopping Centre in Nazran; according to eyewitnesses, Khaniev, a seller of fragrances, and Muslim Khashagulgov, an activist and the security head of the shopping centre, were killed.

The journalist Afghan Mukhtarly, who is serving his prison sentence in Azerbaijan, cannot call from the colony by a payphone; and his conversations through the call centre are tapped, his wife has stated.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensation to a Chechen family, to which Lithuania refused to grant asylum.

Mikhail Saakashvili has called on Georgian citizens to go out to hold protest actions on December 16, the inauguration day of the president-elect Salome Zurabishvili.

The request of the Avar residents of the village of Kenkhi, Sharoi District of Chechnya, to build a road connecting the village with the Tsumadin District of Dagestan, remained unanswered. This year, roads were built only in the village itself; but there is no road to the border of Dagestan, said Ramazan Djalaldinov, a resident of the village.

Instagram accounts of the independent edition "The Magas Times" and Ingush journalist Isabella Evloeva and a number of other accounts are not available. Journalists complain about threats and attempts to hack accounts which became more frequent after an October rally.

Over the past 24 hours, the positions of the Azerbaijani army were shelled in four villages, reported the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan.

Tsetiev brothers and Khamid Razhapov, natives of Chechnya, freed from the charges of attacking rescuers, had been under criminal prosecution for several years. This was announced by Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Human Rights Council (HRC), at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Fedotov proposed to create a group to assess the legality of court's decisions.

The police stopped a rally held by family members of soldiers killed during the Karabakh conflict. Protesters are trying to get compensation from the authorities. The authorities claim that the money was paid back in the 1990s, but they don't provide any supporting documents, the protestors say.

According to organizers, about 100 supporters of second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, arrested on the charge of overthrowing the constitutional order, gathered in Yerevan. They accuse organizers of the rally, including first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, of dispersing the demonstration in March 2008, when dozens of people were killed.

The events of December 1994, when the Russian authorities announced the introduction of troops into Chechnya, are remembered by residents of the republic, but are ignored at the official level.

The Franco-German Prize "For Human Rights and Rule of Law" was awarded to Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and was given to his colleagues at the residence of the German Ambassador in Moscow.

Supporters of Robert Kocharyan, the second President of Armenia, who was arrested on charges of overthrowing the constitutional order, gathered in the Republic Square in Yerevan and demand to release him from custody.

Maxim Lapunov, a gay who had declared his detention and torture in Chechnya, has again appealed Tatiana Moskalkova, the Russia's Ombudsperson with a request to assist in the investigation of his case.

Policemen have detained a military serviceman from the Russian military base, located in Gyumri, suspected of committing a murder, the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Armenia has informed.

Saida Sirazhudinova, a co-author of the "Legal Initiative" report on "honour killings" in Northern Caucasus, decided not to go to the police in connection with the fact that she was openly watched in the Moscow metro. The activist has stated she continues to work as usual. Meanwhile, a leader of the "Legal Initiative" receives messages that can be regarded as threats, reports the press secretary of the "Legal Initiative".

Today, at a trial in the case against Oyub Titiev, his advocate has pointed to the fact that the signature of a policeman in his report stating that the rights defender kept drugs at home does not match his signatures in other documents.