News

The NGO "Fair Elections" reports about pre-election violations registered before the second round of elections to local self-government bodies in Georgia. In particular, rights defenders have revealed facts of illegal campaigning and pressure on officials and candidates.

The Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadirov, who was arrested on charges of treason, has testified, for the first time during nearly three months of his custody, to investigators. He has completely denied the charges against him, said Elmar Suleimanov, one of his defenders.

Today, the house of Gadjigishi Bambatov, the chairman of the Dagestani organization "Atly-Boyun Public Anti-Corruption Board", located in the Leninkent neighbourhood of Makhachkala, was searched. Bambatov claims that the search was an attempt to put pressure and intimidate him to force him to give up his struggle with land frauds.

As reported by statements posted on the websites that support North-Caucasian militants, the latter took responsibility for assassinating Aitemir Salimgereev, the former head of the GOVD (City Interior Division) of Kizilyurt, and a police major in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan.

This morning, a law enforcement source has reported that a supposed member of an illegal armed formation (IAF), who opened fire at law enforcers from the roof of the mosque, was shot dead in the Dagestani village of Echeda. His accomplice was killed after power agents blocked the mosque.

The Nasimi District Court has considered the complaint filed by Kyamala Bananyarly, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), against the refusal of the Prosecutor's Office to institute criminal proceedings on her complaint about the fact that she had been subjected to torture at the police station. The Court has dismissed her complaint.

In the Rostov Region, operation of three checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border has been suspended because of the ongoing shooting in the adjacent Ukrainian territory in the closest vicinity of the Russian border. This was told to the agency "Interfax-South" by Vasily Malaev, Spokesperson of the Border Guard Service of the Russian FSB for the Rostov Region.

In Dagestan, a "Caucasian Knot" source from the law enforcement agencies has reported the details of the murder of Police Colonel Aitemir Salimgereev committed in Kizilyurt. Attackers handcuffed the owner of the house to a metal heating pipe and tied him with a cord. Then, they inflicted multiple stab wounds to him and cut off the Aitemir Salimgereev's head.

On July 10, Isa Abdulkadyrov was detained in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan. He has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he had been beaten by policemen and that he had been forced to incriminate himself.

In Dagestan, at the trial in the case against Sabina Abakarova, a local resident accused of illegal possession of weapons, the court has started to consider the written evidence. The defence has reported the results of the examination, which revealed no traces of explosive substances on the defendant's hands and face.

On July 10, in Nagorno-Karabakh, the court of first instance sentenced Ara Avetyan and Sergey Arutyunyan to 11 and 9 years of imprisonment, respectively, on charges of attempting to assassinate Vitaly Balasanyan, ex-presidential candidate, a deputy of the National Assembly.

The state prosecutor asked to sentence four out of 16 Jehovah's Witnesses, tried in the city of Taganrog, Rostov Region, to six years in a general-regime colony, said Victor Zhenkov, an advocate. According to the press release of the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, received today by the "Caucasian Knot", prosecutors failed to formulate the essence of the presented charges.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Russia has stated that today, as a result of actions of Ukrainian power agents, the checkpoint "Gukovo" located on the Russian-Ukrainian border was shelled by artillery; nobody was hurt.

At the trial for the murder of Yegor Scherbakov, a resident of the Moscow district of Biryulyovo, the defendant Orkhan Zeinalov said he did not sign any protocols of the interrogations, which, according to the case files, had been held during the preliminary investigation, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Shakhin Novruzlu, an activist of the "Nida" movement, who was sentenced to six years in prison, has appealed to President Ilham Aliev for clemency, adding that he decided to give up any further political activities, the Penitentiary Service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has reported today.

Relatives of Khusein Dakhtaev, who was suspected of the shooting of Akhmed Dopaev, a staff member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and who was killed on July 3 in Grozny, were expelled from the village of Goi-Chu of the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, where they used to live. According to the district administration, the decision was made and pronounced at the gathering of villagers of Goi-Chu.

An advocate of Imangazali Magomedov, a resident of the village of Shaumyan of the Kizlyar District of Dagestan, suspected of illegal possession of weapons, has filed a complaint to the head of the Investigating Department for Dagestan of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). According to the advocate, local investigators and policemen ignore the complaints filed against the facts of beating of her client during his arrest.

In the Rostov Region, a magistrate has fined the public organization "Union of Don Women" 300,000 roubles for a charge of political activities without entering the register of "foreign agents".

In the evening of July 9, in the Volgograd Region, the city of Volzhsky hosted a picket "Case Against Parshin is Case Against Me". The picket was organized by the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) in support of Nikolai Parshin, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the leader of the Volgograd Committee of the CPRF.

In the Untsukul District of Dagestan, law enforcers have left the village of Maidanskoe. This was reported by local residents in the evening of July 9.