News

The Chechen Supreme Court (SC) has pronounced interlocutory orders with regard to Marina Dubrovina and Doku Itslaev, advocates of Stanislav Klykh and Nikolai Karpyuk.

The Chechen Prosecutor's Office has revoked the investigators' resolution on refusal to open a criminal case of the attack in Chechnya on Igor Kalyapin, a member of the Human Rights Council (HRC). The prosecutors have sent the materials for re-verification.

In the course of the special operation in Nazran and Malgobek, law enforcers killed suspected militant Khizyr Galaev and Usman and Zurab Tsoloev, reports a source from the law enforcement bodies. The names of two other killed men have not yet been reported.

On May 26, residents of dilapidated houses held a meeting in front of a burnt-down 12-apartment house in Perelyotnaya Street. The authorities were to resettle the residents until 2011, but they failed to do it, claim the participants of the meeting.

The referendum on the South Ossetia's inclusion into Russia should be preceded by serious preparatory work among the population. This opinion was expressed by South-Ossetian politicians. They believe that the referendum could act as an annoying factor in the community in case if it is organized on the eve of the presidential election.

The General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has appealed to the Interpol with a request to put on the wanted list an Abkhazian border guard, suspected of killing Giga Otkhozoriya, a citizen of Abkhazia.

The International Circassian Association (ICA) has lost its popularity and authority in the Circassian world. Russia needs to establish constructive relations with the structure alternative to the ICA, believe the Circassian activists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The referendum will be held after the presidential election in South Ossetia, says the joint statement, signed today by President Leonid Tibilov and Parliament Speaker Anatoly Bibilov.

Today, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime has been introduced in the city of Nazran and in the Nazran District of Ingushetia. According to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), five militants have been killed in the course of the CTO.

By the decision of the Chechen Supreme Court (SC) Nikolai Karpyuk has been sentenced to 22 years and 6 months of imprisonment, and Stanislav Klykh – to 20 years.

Investigators have charged three former top managers of the colony located in the town of Belorechensk, Krasnodar Territory (also called Kuban by the name of the main river), with abuse of power within the case of beating inmates, one of whom died. Earlier, seven employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) were arrested.

This morning, in the village of Kasumkent of the Suleiman-Stalsky District, policemen tried to stop a suspicious man to check his documents. The man opened fire on them and was killed by return fire.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has organized an action of urgent assistance to Valentina Cherevatenko, the leader of the Union "Women of the Don", who faces criminal prosecution for failure to supply documents for inclusion of her NGO in the register of foreign agents.

Khadija Ismayilova, released from detention by the decision of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan, is ready to continue working as a journalist and struggling for the liberation of her colleagues and other activists. Meanwhile, the journalist does not agree with the court verdict and intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

On May 16-25, Mr Sètondji Roland Adjovi (Benin), the head of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and his deputy José Guevara (Mexico) attended 25 penitentiary institutions in Azerbaijan, where detainees and convicts serving their sentences are kept. The UN officials interviewed more than 80 detainees and prisoners and met government officials and activists of civil society in the cities of Baku, Ganja, and Nakhchivan.

Members of the Saveliev "Olympic settlers" family have claimed that they do not intend to leave the house put up for the auction, until the City Mayor does allocate to them a cottage to replace their house demolished because of the construction of the Olympic highway M-27. Earlier, the Saveliev family members have abandoned a three-room apartment allocated to them in a resort village of the mountain cluster.

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) has lifted charges of misappropriation and abuse of office from the journalist Khadija Ismayilova.

Yesterday, militants managed not only to mine a relay tower in the Shamil District, but also to blow it up, said a law enforcement source. In the tower's coverage area cellular communication is absent; and interruptions in TV broadcasting are observed.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon Nadezhda Savchenko, said Dmitri Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, adding that the Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Evgeny Erofeev, convicted in Kiev, had been brought to Moscow.

Within the past six months, the list run by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" of the persons deprived of freedom for political reasons, has went up to 87 persons. Out of 45 new political prisoners, five are natives of Northern Caucasus and Southern Federal District (SFD), or those, convicted in these regions.