News

The Gimry Tunnel will be opened to motor traffic after the end of the special operation conducted in the settlement of Vremenny, Untsukul District of Dagestan, said a source from power agencies. According to his version, the situation may settle by the end of this week.

Abkhazia has held the inauguration of President-Elect Raul Khajimba. Out of the countries, which had recognized the independence of Abkhazia, delegations from Venezuela and Nauru failed to visit the ceremony; the rest of them – Russia, Transnistria, Nicaragua, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia – were present.

Georgia has become a Vice-Chair of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly (GA), which takes place at the organization's headquarters in New York. The Georgian delegation is headed by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

The trial of the head of the NGO "Promoting Democracy" Emil Mamedov has heard the final speeches of the prosecutor and the defence. The former asked the court to punish Mamedov and Tofig Gasymov, another member of the NGO, without putting them behind bars.

Georgian NGOs offer the authorities to urgently set up a working group on electoral issues, citing the need to improve the Georgia's electoral legislation and bring it to full compliance with international standards.

Nothing is still known about the fate of four residents of the settlement of Vremenny, Untsukul District of Dagestan, detained on September 18. A local said on September 24 that at the moment the situation in the settlement is calm.

Azerbaijan should reform its electoral law, so that the opposition is better represented in the Parliament, while the latter should have more control over the government – such structure being an inherent element of democracy, said Anne Brasseur, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

At the temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the city of Maikop, the advocate Lyudmila Alexandrova is not allowed to meet her client – Zarema Khadjirokova, accused of committing a large-scale fraud. Lyudmila herself told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), who is kept at the Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1, was beaten up by an employee of the SIZO, her advocates report in their statement. They demanded an inquiry and punishment of those guilty.

The defence of Evgeny Vitishko decided to appeal, at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the refusal of the Krasnodar Territorial Court to release the ecologist.

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has ruled to extend the custody of 52 defendants in the case of the attack on Nalchik by three more months.

In the morning on Wednesday, September 24, power agents detained Asiyat Patakhova, a resident of Makhachkala, and took her to some unknown place, said Aisha Selimkhanova, an activist of the Dagestani Regional Public Organization (DRPO) "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy).

The Sheki Court of Appeal (CoA) has dismissed the complaint lodged by Ilgar Mamedov and Tofig Yagublu, oppositional politicians, convicted on charges of rioting in the city of Ismayilly. At the same time, the sentence to three other figurants in the case was commuted.

The decision of the Moscow City Court (MCC) to award Nikita Tikhonov, convicted to life imprisonment for killing the lawyer Markelov, with additional 18 years in prison on charges of creating the extremist community known as BORN will be appealed against, said his advocate.

Nikita Tikhonov, convicted to life imprisonment for the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov, was found guilty of organizing an extremist community, six murders and two attempted murders and sentenced to 18 years in prison additionally.

The Krasnodar Regional Court has rejected the presentation of the Prosecutor's Office asking to change the punishment of Evgeny Vitishko, a member of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), and upheld the verdict of the Tuapse District Court, said Andrei Rudomakha, the coordinator of the EcoWatch.

The repeated requests of the Muslim community to solve the problem of deficit of mosques in the Krasnodar Territory remain unanswered, believers assert. The attempt to contain the spread of Islam leads to aggravation of inter-religious relations, said the experts questioned by the "Caucasian Knot".

The opening of the Gimry Tunnel for motor traffic scheduled for September 23 did not take place. The reason was the deterioration of the situation in the settlement of Vremenny, Untsukul District of Dagestan, said a source from the district administration.

The alleged member of an illegal armed formation (IAF) killed in Ingushetia, in a shootout in the city of Karabulak, was identified as Arthur Murzabekov. Also, two persons suspected of aiding militants were detained, said the Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov.

An action demanding self-liquidation of the NGO "Free Zone", which is associated with the "United National Movement" Party of ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili, was held in Tbilisi on Tuesday, September 23, by activists of the Youth Movement "Free Generation".