News

Today, the Court of Appeal (CoA) of Armenia has dismissed an appeal complaint against the verdict to Volodya Avetisyan, a Karabakh War veteran and an active participant of protest actions, who was convicted on charges of fraud.

Fifteen prisoners of Corrective Colony No. 19, located in the town of Surovikino in the Volgograd Region, have injured themselves in protest against confiscation of prohibited items from them, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) has reported today.

In the course of the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), activists of the international human rights organization "Article 19" demanded from Russian authorities to reopen the investigation into the murder of the "Caucasian Knot" reporter Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev.

Today, the Sovietskiy District Court of Makhachkala has sentenced Sabina Abakarova, charged with illegal possession of weapons, to six months in custody, which she has already served during the investigation and trial, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports.

The rights defender Leyla Yunus is kept in Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1 in intolerable conditions, said her advocate Alaif Gasanov. According to his story, Yunus is under moral and psychological pressure from her two cellmates.

Today, on the anniversary of the terror act committed in the city of Volgodonsk in 1999, mourning ceremonies were held by townspeople to commemorate the victims of the explosion. Early in the morning, Father Cornelius, the Bishop of Volgodonsk and Salsk, delivered a mourning prayer; and city residents laid flowers, the magazine named "Delovoy Kvartal" reports.

On September 15, Alexander Tkachov, the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, ordered to organize 71 temporary accommodation centres (TACs) for refugees from Ukraine based on hotels, resorts, sanatoria and camps. In total, the Territory will be able to additionally take about 5000 forced migrants.

At the initiative of environmentalists of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, a network of eco-villages named "Ecokhndzoristan" was created, which includes the Karabakh villages of Khndzoristan, Patara and Astkhashen. The project assumes to produce ecologically clean foodstuffs and use of modern technologies for waste recycling.

About 200 people took part in the march held in Yerevan in support of Schagen, the son of the leader of the "Tsegakron" Party Shant Arutyunyan, who is under a threat of five years in prison in connection with the incident that happened during the "Million Mask March".

On September 16, the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) of the Tsentralny District of Volgograd will recount the votes at one of the polling stations under the complaint of Gennady Murylyov, a candidate for the Regional Duma from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party.

In Ingushetia, law enforcers are in search of a group of unidentified gunmen, who opened fire from a car at the staff of the regional traffic police (known as GIBDD) department. The shelling did not hit anybody, the local MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) reports.

During the today's session in Sochi on the case of the builder Mardiros Demerchyan, accused of defaming the police, the court has rejected all the petitions lodged by his advocates. The court announced the conclusion of forensic expert, which states that defining the authenticity of the witness's signature proved impossible.

Today, the Moscow City Court (MCC) has dismissed the petition lodged by advocates of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a figurant in the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", and asking to postpone the execution of punishment.

Today, bomb experts from the FSB have blown up an improvised explosive device (IED) detected on the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), says the Information Centre of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).

As reported today by the "Kommersant", without specifying its source, the Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan has sent for retrial the case of a doctor Marat Gunashev, accused of involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The City Court of Bataisk, Rostov Region, has found three former district policemen of the GOVD (City Interior Division) guilty of abuse of power. Each of them was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a general security colony.

During the week of September 8-14, 2014, at least two persons were killed in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. No wounded persons were reported. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources. According to law enforcers, both deceased persons were suspected members of the armed underground in Dagestan.

During the election campaign, which ended on September 14, the "Map of Election Fraud" received more than 30 reports from five regions of Southern Russia. Some of them are published by observers; there are also reports from members of the election commissions and anonymous messages.

Oleg Shein, a candidate for the Governor of the Astrakhan Region, has recognized Alexander Zhilkin's victory, but stated violations at several polling stations and demanded a control vote recount. Shein said that his demand was supported by Alexander Zhilkin himself.

Voting in Southern Russia to elect heads of the four regions and legislative assemblies of three regions; closing TACs opened earlier for Ukrainian refugees in Rostov Region; adoption of the first reading of abolition of direct election of municipality heads in Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of September 8-14, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".