News

At the press conference held in Yerevan on April 15, advocates of arrested members of the "Founding Parliament" have declared that the arrests of the activists in Armenia are an act of political persecution. According to the defence, investigators have unreasonably imposed a ban on the visits of family members to the arrested activists.

Today, the Kirsanov District Court of the Tambov Region has refused to grant a motion to release the Krasnodar ecologist Evgeny Vitishko on parole (under conditional early relief – CER). The Court has explained the decision by the fact that the ecologist "failed to repent of the committed crime and to behave better during the year served in the penal colony." According to advocate Sergey Loktev, the ecologist's defence is going to file an appeal.

Today, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have unanimously adopted the resolution "To declare the date of April 24 the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in the European Union."

In Chechnya, the criminal investigation was started in the case against two 17-year-old teenagers suspected of preparations to join an illegal armed formation (IAF) in Syria.

In Chechnya, employees of public institutions have reported that the authorities persistently advised them to take part in the voting organized by the US magazine "Time". According to the voting results, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been recognized the most influential person in the world.

Today, in Gyumri, local residents held a protest action in front of the Russian Consulate. They demanded to extradite Valery Permyakov, accused of massacring the Avetisyan family members, to the Armenian law enforcement bodies.

The police withdrew from the hospital Mikhail Abramyan, the Secretary of the Stavropol branch of the "Communists of Russia" Party, and took him away to some unknown destination. This was reported by colleagues of Mikhail Abramyan.

The Russian Supreme Court (SC) has considered the appeal filed by the "Ecological Watch on Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch) against the decision of the Supreme Court of Adygea to liquidate the organization and cancelled the decision of the court of first instance.

The investigation into the calls for separatism instituted against Krasnodar activist Darya Polyudova has been completed. According to investigators, when calling on to intergrate Kuban into Ukraine, Darya Polyudova was motivated by her "personal dislike for the incumbent president."

Several dozen rights defenders, politicians, and experts from various countries have made an appeal to leaders of states and called for a boycott of the European Games in Baku in connection with the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani authorities claim that persons, who do not want independent development of the country, make an attempt to put pressure on Azerbaijan.

On April 13, the court station No. 1 chaired by a magistrate of the Central District of the city of Voronezh held a court hearing on the complaint filed by Mass Media Defence Centre (MMDC).

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" intends to appeal against the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings against participants of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Dagestani settlement of Vremenny. After the CTO had been completed, local residents have claimed a large-scale destruction in their village.

On April 14, Bashir Suleimanly, a former political prisoner, the Executive Director of the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training (CMEDT), was banned from leaving Azerbaijan. A day earlier, rights defender Elshan Gasanov was also banned from leaving the country.

Eight activists of the "Communists of Russia" Party have been detained today in Stavropol during an action in support of Mikhail Abramyan, said their advocate.

The verdict to the figurants in the case of the extremist community "Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists" (known as BORN) will be announced on April 21 – the corresponding decision was made by the Moscow Regional Court (MRC).

A criminal investigation has been launched in the Volgograd Region against a former operative agent of the Criminal Search Division, suspected of abuse of power with using violence.

Today, at the trial of Rasul Jafarov in Azerbaijan, his advocates announced their closing remarks: they urged the court to acquit the rights defender, stating that his guilt was not proved.

The defence of Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, who is accused of participating in the murder of Boris Nemtsov, has announced its intention to apply for a polygraph test of its client. Advocates of other defendants – Gubashev brothers and Khamzat Bakhaev – also do not exclude the possibility of applying the lie detector test to their clients.

Mortars and heavy machine guns are used by the Armenian party on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan. According to its version, during the last 24 hours, the ceasefire was violated 39 times.

In the gardening comradeship "Domostroitel", located adjacent to Nalchik, which was put under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, a man, who rendered armed resistance to law enforcers, was shot dead.