News

The North-Caucasian District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced a group of defendants, accused of crimes committed in the territory of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, including the terror act in the marketplace in Vladikavkaz.

On March 31, Suleiman Edigov, a resident of Chechnya, accused of endangering the life of a law enforcer and arms trafficking, stopped his hunger strike, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has launched a campaign to collect signatures to the petition calling for release of the youth activists of the civil movement "Nida", arrested in Azerbaijan.

The Federal Security Bureau (FSB) of the Russian Federation acting jointly with its colleagues from other countries, including Georgia, has stopped the preparations of terror acts at Olympic facilities in Sochi, said the FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov.

Fariz Namazly, the advocate of Mamed Azizov, an activist of the civil movement "Nida", kept in prison in Azerbaijan, has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) asking to investigate his client's torture. The lawyer believes that Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was violated in respect of Azizov.

The militants, who in November 2013 attempted on the life of madrassa teacher Arslanali Shakhbulatov, known for his criticism of Wahhabism, have been identified, said a law enforcement source. They were killed during a special operation in January.

Russian authorities should immediately release Ruslan Kutaev, a resident of Chechnya and the President of the "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", who was detained on February 20 by republic's power agents, and ensure the effective investigation of his report about torture at the police, the international Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports.

The Russia's Constitutional Court (CC) has recognized constitutional the requirement that NGOs receiving financial assistance from abroad should get registered as "foreign agents". The decision of the CC will allow the courts to consider the "roundtables", interviews, and press releases as political activities. This was emphasized by Furkat Tishaev, a lawyer of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

The Moscow City Court holds hearings in the case of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". During the presentation of defence evidence, the advocates of the defendants twice demanded to disqualify the judge.

On April 8, Emil Mamedov, the leader of the Public Association "Promoting Democracy" acting in the Salyan District of Azerbaijan, sent an open letter to President Ilham Aliev and Ramil Usubov, Minister of Internal Affairs (MIA). Emil Mamedov claims the local authorities subject the NGOs to pressure.

Russian special services were waiting for a convenient moment to announce the death of Doku Umarov, say Geidar Djemal, the Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, the FSB retired Colonel Gennady Gudkov and Alexei Malashenko, a member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Carnegie Centre.

According to opinion polls conducted in Georgia this year by the International Republican Institute (IRI), the majority of Georgian citizens – 71 percent – believe that Russia continues its aggression against their country.

A shootout, during which three policemen were wounded, occurred in the territory of the Derbent District of Dagestan, the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported. According to the source, one of suspected militants was also wounded.

A supposed killer of Magomeddibir Murtazaliev, the manager of the Makhachkala branch of the OJSC "Rosselkhozbank" was detained and identified as a casualty's colleague, the investigative bodies report.

On Tuesday, April 8, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don started sentencing five men accused of organizing the terror acts in the central marketplace of Vladikavkaz. The state prosecution demands imprisonment from 16 years to life term.

Three servicemen of the National Army of Azerbaijan were killed and six others wounded by a landmine explosion on April 7 in the Fizuli direction of the contact line frontline, the press service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the evening on April 7, in the village of Semender, in the outskirt of Makhachkala, a grenade went up in the balcony of the house of the Dagestani Deputy Minister of Land Reclamation. The explosion hit nobody, said a law enforcement source.

The medics of the Untsukul district hospital in Dagestan report that the health condition of the beaten wife and pregnant daughter of Khadizhalal Ziyavudinov remains stable. Policemen suspect that they were attacked by three militants' aides, a source from the Untsukul ROVD (District Interior Division) told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the Salyan District of Azerbaijan, on charges of "hooliganism", Tofig Gasymov, 25, an activist of the NGO "Promoting Democracy", was sentenced to ten days of administrative arrest. Emil Mamedov, the head of the NGO, believes that the arrest was politically motivated, but local authorities, in their turn, deny any political pressure on civil society activists.

On April 7, at the Moscow City Court (MCC), the defendants in the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya refused to testify, despite the fact that earlier they promised to narrate their own version of events to the court.