News

The population of Russia is optimistic about the situation in Northern Caucasus, the polling data of the "Levada-Centre" indicates. Experts attribute this to the events in Ukraine. According to Lev Gudkov, the director of the "Levada-Centre", information about Northern Caucasus remains in the background and does not worry people.

Relatives of Almaz Abdulnasyrov, a resident of the Neftekumsk District of the Stavropol Territory, who, according to the official version, was killed in a shootout with power agents in the Novoselitsa District, have not yet received any response from the prosecutor's office to their demand to check the legality of policemen's actions.

On July 31, Azerbaijani investigators conducted a search of the flat of Rasul Djafarov, a human rights activist and coordinator of the campaign "The Art for Democracy".

The Krasnodar ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, who is serving his sentence in a colony-settlement in the Tambov Region, was placed into the punishment cell (dungeon), said the press service of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch).

As proclaimed by a number of international human rights organizations and Azerbaijani oppositionists, Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Azerbaijani Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) is one of the independent voices of the country, where authorities try to silence her through arrest and prosecution.

The Sovietsky District Court of Makhachkala has found the doctor Ilyas Temaev guilty of keeping marijuana without intent to sell and sentenced him to eight months in prison. The court took into account Temaev's term, spent in custody, and released him in the courtroom.

The indefinite suspension of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" (Freedom) is caused by the refusal of the state publishing house "Azerbaijan" to print the newspaper because of its debts. This decision is politically motivated, says the editorial board of the newspaper.

The Sovietskiy District Court of Makhachkala has postponed till August 18 the consideration of the case of Sabina Abakarova, a local resident, accused of illegal possession of firearms. The session was postponed because of the vacations of the policeman, who is in charge of storing the exhibits that the court had planned to investigate, said the advocate.

In the opinion of law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan, Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), accused of treason, should be kept in custody, since she had tried to leave the country, evaded the investigation and may influence the witnesses.

The Rostov Region has placed 42,669 people, who came from the Ukraine; a third of them are children, report the authorities. The Governor Vasily Golubev notes that the region has exhausted its capacities to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, but continues taking them.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported about the murder of its serviceman on the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line.

Musa Magomedov, a resident of the village of Nechaevka, Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, was detained by power agents, his relatives have reported. They cannot establish his whereabouts and believe that firearms were planted on him during search.

Despite the arrest imposed on Nadezhda Tsapok's account at the "Rosselkhozbank", 92.064 million roubles were illegally withdrawn, said Andrei Karpenko, the director of the law firm "Centre of Legal Technologies".

The MPs of the Russian State Duma Vladimir Pligin, Andrei Isaev and Alexander Sidyakin are preparing an appeal to the government to increase the financial aid to the Rostov Region, which is accommodating Ukrainian citizens.

The advocates are preparing a complaint against the verdict passed by the Moscow City Court (MCC) in the case of the members of the of the Moscow branch of the organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami", banned in Russia, who were sentenced to imprisonment for 7-11 years.

In Yerevan, at the trial of the participants of the "Million Mask March", the court questioned six policemen, who figure in the case as victims. All the six have asserted that prior to the march held on November 5, 2013, they were not familiar with the defendants.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan will continue, on August 4, its consideration of the appeal complaint against the verdict passed by the Buynaksk City Court against Zarema Bagavutdinova, an activist of the Dagestani Regional Public Organization (DRPO) "Pravozaschita" (Advocacy).

In Azerbaijan, criminal charges of disorderly conduct were presented to the minor son of Oktay Gyulalyev, the press secretary of the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF). The father treats the charges as far-fetched and associates them with his own political and human rights activities.

On Wednesday, July 30, the Nasimi District Court in Baku ruled to arrest Leyla Yunus, a human rights activist and Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), who is accused of treason, for three months.

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan has ruled to prohibit Rasul Djafarov, a well-known civil society activist and coordinator of the campaign "Art for Democracy", from leaving the country. His bank accounts were arrested.