News

Iranian authorities have released two citizens of Azerbaijan – the writer Khalida Khalid and her driver and helper Shamkhal Guseinov, who were arrested on April 30, said Elman Abdullaev, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan.

On Monday, the Tsentralny District Court of Sochi dismissed the petition of the investigation to change the recognizance not to leave of the journalist of the Public Television of Russia (PTR) Nikolai Yarst for custody. Instead, the court appointed a two-month home arrest.

On Monday, at the trial of the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, the defendant Murat Kashirgov said that several defendants had gone on hunger strike. According to Kashirgov, the protest was caused by the fact that the defendants' complaints remain within the SIZO and fail to reach the destinations.

Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the movement "Republican Alternative" ("ReAl") has stopped the hunger strike in the penalty chamber (dungeon), said his lawyer Khalid Bagirov. The information about Mamedov's hunger strike is not true, said Mekhman Sadygov, a representative of the Penitentiary Service.

The strike held in the Batumi Port by employees of the company "Batumi International Container Terminal", who demanded higher wages and better working conditions, is over. The strikers demanded higher wage, to open a medical centre at the enterprise, and take measures to ensure labour safety.

Russian school graduates start taking their USEs, during which a number of violations were fixed in South of Russia; Makhachkala Mayor detained on suspicion of organizing a murder in Dagestan; Georgia protests against Russia's demarcation actions on the border with South Ossetia; establishment of the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces of Azerbaijan prior to the upcoming presidential election; women's hunger strike demanding more places in kindergartens of Volgograd, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of May 27-June 2, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

As reported by Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), the mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov was detained on suspicion of organizing a murder of an investigator in Dagestan. On June 1, the police blocked Parkhomenko Street in Makhachkala and, according to eyewitnesses, surrounded the house of Said Amirov. A source from the republic's law enforcement bodies said that the mayor was detained and taken out of the city in a helicopter.

The data on terrorist activity in Russia in 2012, published in the annual report of the US State Department, are essentially diverging from the data conducted by the "Caucasian Knot" on the basis of its own materials and information from open sources. The report of US State Department contains information about 182 terror attacks committed in Russia in 2012. Meanwhile, the statistics on the North Caucasus compiled by the "Caucasian Knot" shows a significantly lower figure.

The historical centre of Baku has launched a two-day festival "European Town", which has aroused a great interest in residents of the capital of Azerbaijan, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports. The festival was held with the aim to expand the knowledge of European values and promote Azerbaijan-EU relations.

A picket under the motto "For Russian circus without cruelty" that was held on the embankment of Volgograd brought together about forty protesters. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt from Tatiana Ryabinova, the organizer of the picket and coordinator of the "Vita" Centre in Defence of Animals' Rights, that the picket of 30 people had been agreed with the authorities.

On Monday, the Oktiabrsky District Court of Stavropol continued the preliminary hearing on the case of Igor Bestuzhy, the former head of the city administration. It was held behind closed doors; and the court retired to the jury room until June 5.

In the city of Nakhichevan, authorities are forcibly evicting nine families of retired militaries and veterans of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from their apartments, the residents of the military township are complaining. "In 1987, we received a warrant for the apartment. Now, the authorities of Nakhichevan have brought the police here and demand to quickly abandon the flat," a veteran Abdullah Orudjov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the micro-district Yubileiny of Krasnodar, about 20 young parents took part in a picket with a demand to the local authorities to solve the problem of shortage of places in kindergartens of their micro-district. The picket was dated to the International Children's Day.

The theologian Talekh Bagirzade, who is kept in the SIZO (pre-trial prison), located in the Baku suburb of Kyurdakhany, was put into a dungeon for five days. It happened on May 28 and was associated with the detainee's open appeal, addressed to leaders of foreign states and urging them to be "objective in assessing the situation in Azerbaijan," a Bagirzade's advocate said.

The father of Ibragim Todashev, who was killed during interrogation by FBI agents, received a USA visa, said Kheda Saratova, an activist of the Information Centre "Objective". On June 1, he flew to the USA to take the body of his son.

On Monday, the Nariman District Court in Baku sentenced six believers, who were arrested for taking part in the action against the ban on hijabs in schools, to the terms ranging from one year and nine months to six years in prison. Advocates of the convicted disagreed with the verdict and said that they would appeal against it.

On June 1, at about 2:30 a.m., the tent camp at the landing stage in the Volgograd Region was attacked by unidentified persons, who arrived in cars, beat the defenders of the building and burned down the camp.

On June 1, the city of Karachaevsk hosted a rally in support of its mayor Soltan Semyonov. Initially, an event to mark the Children's Day had been planned in the square in front of the city administration; however, it turned into a spontaneous rally in support of the mayor.

The government of Ingushetia, the school staff and school graduates refute the information disseminated in social networks that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ingushetia Musa Chiliev personally searched graduates, in order to find cribs, prior to the Unified State Examination (USE) in the village of Troitskaya.

In the opinion of Magomed Magomedrasulov, the chairman of the Makhachkala City Assembly, the Mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov is not guilty of the incriminated crimes. Amirov was detained on June 1 on suspicion of organizing a murder of an employee of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) in Dagestan.