News

Azerbaijani experts and local residents have different opinions on the value for the country of the recent First European Games held in Baku. Some believe that the Games boosted the country's international reputation and promotion of its tourism potential; while others point out huge expenses and increased criticism for human rights violations.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has accepted to consideration the complaints of most of the applicants, who suffered from the terror act with hostage taking in Beslan in 2004. According to the lawyer Sergey Knyazkin, who is representing the applicants' interests of the, the consideration should help to identify the mistakes that led to massive children's deaths.

In December 2014, the office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders in Chechnya, was set on fire in three places – this is evidenced by fire-technical expertises, carried out under the criminal investigation.

Special equipment, including water cannons, has been removed from Bagramyan Avenue in central Yerevan, where activists protest against the increase of the electricity tariff. However, the police said that the equipment may be brought back to the place of protest.

So far, law enforcement bodies have not presented charges to Elkhan Kazimov, an adviser to the Mayor of Derbent, detained on June 30, said a source from the GOVD (City Interior Division). The detention of Kazimov may have to do with the struggle of different groups for key positions in the leadership of the city, said Milrad Fatullaev, the editor-in-chief of the RIA "Derbent".

The protests of residents of the village of Chereshnya against the garbage dump arranged in the village centre gave no results. The villagers who tried to block the passage of KamAZ trucks were pushed off by the police. The authorities say that the garbage dump is temporary.

Ali Aliev, a resident of Nasyr-Kort, and his wife Leyla Alieva, who were killed during a special operation in Nazran, were not involved in illegal armed formations (IAFs), said Aliev's brother Magomed Aliev. He called rights defenders to help to bring the participants of the special operation to justice.

Musabi Berkhamov, a resident of the city of Baksan, has sent his complaints about violations of the rights of his son, Anzor Berkhamov, in a colony located in the Kurgan Region, to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) and the republic's Ombudsperson.

Valentina Melnikova, the secretary of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, has stated that there were violations in the work of human rights activist Lyudmila Bogatenkova, who has been sentenced today. On the other hand, Sergey Krivenko, a member of the Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights, asserts that not a single fact confirming Bogatenkova's guilt was proved at the trial.

Apart from the sit-in strike in Bagramyan Avenue in Yerevan, Armenia has stopped other protest actions against the increase of electricity tariff.

The beaten and kidnapped blogger Vyacheslav Starodubets has held a solo picket in Makhachkala trying to attract authorities' attention to the investigation of his case.

Today, at the trial of Ali Taziev, accused of taking part in the attack on Nazran in June 2004, the pleadings began. Prosecutors ask the court to sentence the defendant to life imprisonment.

The legality of policemen's actions on June 23 in Yerevan will be checked by the Special Investigating Service, said Gevorg Kostanyan, the General Public Prosecutor of Armenia.

The court acquitted Lyudmila Bogatenkova on one of the episodes of her fraud case; and re-qualified the charge on the other episode; and applied the amnesty act.

The conflict of Magomed Suleimanov, the acting head of the administration of Makhachkala, with Khizri Shikhsaidov, the speaker of the Dagestani parliament, around lists of candidates for deputies of district assemblies of Makhachkala was preceded by Abdulatipov's statement of distrust to Suleimanov.

The situation in Bagramyan Avenue in Yerevan, where protesters against rise of electricity tariff are still rallying, is quiet; and the police decided to suspend patrolling the area. The night passed without incidents.

The main mourning events announced in Chechnya in connection with the death of Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, the Chairman of the Parliament of the Chechen Republic, are held in the house of his family in the village of Djalka, Gudermes District. The issue of a new parliament speaker remains open.

The celebrations dedicated to awarding the title of the "City of Military Glory" to the Chechen capital have essentially impeded the motor traffic in Grozny, locals report.

Arutyun Arutyunyan, 29, a cook, and Ike Parikyan, 28, an entrepreneur, have gone on hunger strike against the increase of electricity tariff in Yerevan.

Roman Shikarev, the leader of the public movement "Law and Order", gives testimony to investigators as a witness in a criminal case. His office and home were searched.