News

Tatiana Kryuchkina, an accountant of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), has been questioned as a witness in the Investigating Department for Grave Crimes of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan in connection with the criminal case against a number of local and foreign NGOs.

The first trucks with the Russian humanitarian aid to residents of Eastern Ukraine have entered the check line of the "Donetsk" checkpoint of the Millerovo customs, The Ukrainian customs officers have begun clearing the cargos, the Southern Customs Administration of the Russian Federation has informed.

In Azerbaijan, the court has started consideration on the merits of the criminal case against Emil Mamedov, the head of the NGO "Promoting Democracy". After the pronouncement of the indictment, the defendant has delivered speech, in which he denied the charges.

On the day of opening of the ethnographic complex "Shira-Yurt", the large-scale questioning of Chechen residents by the policemen, who were searching for the mobile phone of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, can be legally justified in case if the law enforcers believed that the mobile phone could have been stolen, says advocate Igor Trunov.

Larisa Alaverdyan, the head of the public organization "Against Legal Arbitrariness", and Marina Grigoryan, the organizer of the project "Ordinary Genocide", have started collecting written appeals to international organizations calling for an investigation into the cause of death of Armenian citizen Karen Petrosyan captured in Azerbaijan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is ready to grant asylum to Iraqi Yazidis, said David Babayan, the press secretary of the office of the president of the NKR. Experts believe that the world powers should pay more attention to the problem of Yazidis in Iraq.

Dias Kadyrbaev, a friend of Chechen native Johar Tsarnaev, a main suspect in the case of the organization of the terror act at the marathon in Boston in 2013, has agreed to plead guilty. This was reported by Robert Stahl, an advocate of Dias Kadyrbaev.

Said Ibragimov, one of the advocates in the case of the terror acts in Volgograd, reports about violations of the rights of the four defendants. The trial began on August 11 and is held behind closed doors. The defendants deny their involvement in the terror acts.

The attack committed by unidentified persons on Magomed Khanmagomedov, the editor-in-chief of the "Derbent Izvestia" newspaper did not result in serious injuries, Khanmagomedov himself told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As state by the lawyer Alaif Gasanov, the rights defender Leyla Yunus is exposed moral and psychological pressure at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Azerbaijan. The Geneva-based Observatory for Protection of Rights Defenders has also reported, in its statement, Leyla's health worsening.

The presidential candidates Raul Khajimba and Aslan Bjaniya are most probable rivals at the second round of the Abkhazian presidential election, Konstantin Zatulin, the Director of the Institute of CIS Countries, told in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Arthur Babaev, the head of the Dagestan Regional Branch of the "Yabloko" Party, who on August 14 was brought to the police station together with his brothers and his wife, has stated he does not intend to file a complaint about the policemen's actions to the law enforcement bodies, since he does not believe that it is possible to find the truth.

Doctors estimate the health state of an agent of the Dagestani FSB, who has been wounded on Wednesday in Khasavyurt, as serious, but stable, an official from the FSB reports.

In Chechnya, the law enforcement bodies are being transferred to enhanced service in connection with the large-scale events to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of the birth of former Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov scheduled for August 23.

More than 20 countries have agreed to send their observers to the upcoming early election of the President of Abkhazia, announced Galina Stranichkina, the Chief Adviser to the Speaker of the Abkhaz Parliament.

At night on August 20, the in Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, where power agents were shelled by unidentified persons, was put under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, said the spokesman of the Dagestani operative headquarters.

Power supply interrupted because of a broken catenary system on the railway in the vicinities of Sochi has been restored. At present, trains leave the resort city in accordance with schedule, the press service of the RZhD (Russian Railways) reports.

On August 19, Makhachkala hosted a roundtable, where participants discussed the situation with the unit "G" of the SIZO No. 1. Dagestani advocates and human rights defenders have reported on violations of their rights in the performance of their professional duties and violations of the rights of persons kept at the SIZO.

In the territory of North Ossetia, law enforcers found a hiding with weapons, ammunition, and explosives. The hiding was found during the investigation into the case of actions of the grouping led by Aslan Gagiev, stated Vladimir Markin, the Spokesman of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).