News

Activists of the opposition treat the shift of the voting day to an earlier date as illegal and unjustified, and caused by a possible intention of the authorities to exclude Rustam Ibragimbekov from the race.

In Makhachkala, the second improvised explosive device (IED) installed near the shop "Kristall" (Crystal), was a dummy. This was reported by a source in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for Dagestan.

Operation aimed to detain an alleged rapist in Moscow, which turned into "cleansing" of Moscow marketplaces and gathering places of natives from Northern Caucasus and Central Asia; another murder of theologian in Dagestan; appointment of voting date at presidential election in Azerbaijan, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of July 29-August 4, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

In the city of Nevinnomyssk of the Stavropol Territory, a detainee died in a ward of a detention facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). He was serving his 15-day administrative arrest.

In Georgia, 116 prisoners were granted conditional early relief (CER). This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance.

According to the specified information, seven persons got minor cut injuries in the explosion in a shop located in the centre of Makhachkala. The number of victims has reached nine persons, including two persons who got contused at the moment of the explosion.

According to the calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot", the murder of Ilyas Ilyasov, Imam and theologian, committed in Makhachkala, became the twelfth case of violent death of Islamic religious leaders in Northern Caucasus during 2012 and 2013.

Activists of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" demanded to stop the construction of an entertainment facility that was started on August 2 in the "Bolshoy Utrish" Reserve.

In the KrasnodarTerritory, the court found members of the Gelendzhik Human Rights Centre (GHRC) guilty in the case of fraud and sentenced them to 8-13 years of imprisonment.

Father of anaesthesiologist Marat Gunashev, suspected of the murder of the chief of the Makhachkala Police, has asked human rights defenders to provide assistance in investigating his son's case and bringing it to trial.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by a source from the Investigating Department for Dagestan of the ICRF that an Imam of a Makhachkala mosque was killed tonight in the course of shelling; his driver was wounded.

The Baku police have prevented a protest action of women-journalists demanding to stop blackmailing and interfering into the privacy of their colleague Khadidja Ismailova, an employee of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Liberty. All the participants of the action and the journalists who covered it were detained by the police.

The theologian Javid Mamedov is back at large in Azerbaijan, said Emil Mamedov, the head of the NGO "In Support of Democracy". Mamedov was detained on October 19, 2012, and accused of organizing a believers' action in defence of the religious hijab.

Sochi residents express their outrage with the poor quality of repairs of roads, pavements and house-adjoining territories. In particular, in the Tsentralny District, the streets named after Gorky, Voikov, Pervimaiskaya, Sebastopol, Titov, Tuapse, Dagomys, Kubanskaya, Theatrical and Ordzhonikidze, and Kurortny Avenue remained unrepaired.

On August 4, a number of European cities will hold actions in support of Ales Bialiatski, the head of the human rights centre "Viasna" and Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), who was sentenced in Belarus.

Up to 15 people have come today to picket against the operation of the metallurgical factory of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Electrozink" in Vladikavkaz, said German Revazov, the organizer of the action and an activist of the movement "Stop 'Electrozink'!" and the environmental organization "Novoe Vremya".

The Seventh International Arts Symposium "Alanika" was launched on August 1 in Vladikavkaz. During the event artistic workers Italy, Turkey, Germany, Israel, Serbia, Croatia, Great Britain, Georgia and Azerbaijan will implemented their projects in the field of contemporary arts.

On August 2, in Sochi, investigators resumed checking the information that the builder Mardiros Demerchyan had been beaten by policemen. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Artyom Semenets, an investigator from the Adler Division of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

Musa Pliev, a lawyer from the Bar "Musaev and Partners", has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that on August 1 an agreement was signed on provision of legal aid by the Bar to the persons detained during the anti-crime cleansing of the Matveevsky Marketplace.

Today, by decision of the Khatai District Court of Baku, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "P.S. Nota" and the on-line edition "www.psnota.com" Sardar Alibeili was arrested for 2 months for hooliganism.