News

About 25 supporters of the former Prime Minister of Georgia are holding a spontaneous picket outside at the building of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, demanding to provide an advocate to Vano Merabishvili.

In Chechnya, Internet users are not able to open the websites hosting the film "Innocence of Muslims".

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent with reference to Keti Bekauri, the advocate of Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya, the son of the first president of Georgia, who is accused of attacking an athlete, the defence hopes to reduce the expected imprisonment term for Tsotne from 13 years to 5 years after the charges of espionage and conspiracy have been lifted.

On December, 6, about ten parishioners were detained in one of the mosques of Kaspiysk, Dagestan, a local resident informed the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The court took into custody in one of the investigative isolation wards of Moscow ex-militiaman Sergey Khajikurbanov, defendant on the case of murder of journalist of “Novaya Gazeta” Anna Politkovskaya shot down on October, 7, 2006.

A meeting in support of the resolution of the Independent Congress of the peoples of Dagestan planned on December, 7, in Makhachkala failed. The organizers of the action unable to coordinate it with the Ministry of Justice of the republic decided "not to set up” the participants. Officials of the Ministry of Justice of Dagestan state that they did not prohibit the action and received no official notification from the organizers of the meeting.

Mayor’s office of Baku did not authorize a picket in front of the building of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan planned by oppositional civil movement for democracy “Public Chamber” (CMDPC) on December, 10. However, representatives of the opposition declared their intention to hold the protest action in spite of the authorities’ prohibition.

In the evening of December, 6, unidentified people in the settlement of Maiskoye, Prigorodny district of North Ossetia, forced Ahmed Buzurtanov, trainer of “Kaloy” wrestler’s club, into a car and carried him away in an unknown direction, local residents reported.

The Tbilisi City Court has released the citizen of Russia Akhmed Chataev, who was detained in the course of a special operation conducted in Lopota Gorge, under the bale of 5000 laris, as the "Information Centre Kakheti" reports.

Tsotne Gamsakhurdiya, the son of the first president of Georgia, has been released from accusations of espionage in favour of Russia and a plot, aimed at dethroning the legally elected power. This was reported by her lawyer Keti Bekauri.

In the course of arrival on December 4 of a new group to Colony "Salyn IK-1" in Kalmykia, about 20 prisoners were beaten; their relatives report. The colony itself and the republic's UFSIN (local Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service) deny any information about beating the inmates.

Five former and current employees of the Correction Colony No. 10 located in the Rostov Region, suspected of beating an inmate, have seen charges of abusing their service duties, as reported by the Investigatory Department for the Rostov Region of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian federation (ICRF).

In Azerbaijan, prisoners often become victims of fabricated charges, illegal court judgements and poor treatment by prison administrations. This was stated on December 6 by the participants of the public hearings, organized by the "Public Alliance– Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners". The result of the hearing was the idea to coordinate the efforts of all public committees acting in defence detainees' and convicts' rights.

Today, the Dzerzhinsk City Court of the Nizhni Novgorod Region has started considering a civil case on the claim lodged by the Public Prosecutor of Nizhni Novgorod on recognition of the monograph "International Tribunal for Chechnya" to be extremist, said the press service of the court.

Eyewitness of the crime Maria Minakova described ex-colonel Yuri Busanov’s murder as a dark-haired tall man of an average build in Moscow city court today. Anatoly Zatserenko, another witness of the murder, recognized defendant Yusup Temerkhanov in court.

Journalists of the TV and radio company in Kabardino-Balkaria where Kazbek Gekkiev killed in Nalchik had worked earlier received threats from gunmen. Several days before Gekkiev’s murder gunmen in Dagestan also spoke of “execution lists” for journalists.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili pardoned 251 convicts, Chairperson of the Committee for clemency with the President Elena Tevdoradze told the journalists today.

On November, 20, the Magistrate of Urup district of Karachay-Cherkessia fined local community of “Jehovah's Witnesses” in the settlement of Kurdjinovo to 50 thousand rubles acknowledging them guilty of mass distribution and storage of printed matted included into the federal list of extremist materials.

In Azerbaijan, the Civil Movement for Democracy "Public Chamber"(CMDPC) has supported – after public hearing on December 4 on 2013 presidential election – the memorandum on electoral reform. However, some of the debaters expressed doubt on the possibility to change the situation in the country through elections and spoke in favour of protest actions with the aim to force the authorities to start democratic reforms.

On December 4, the Voroshilov District Court of Volgograd considered a petition of the prosecutor's office asking to treat the appeal of Vladimir Kvachkov, a retired colonel of the so-called GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff), who is now kept at the Lefortovo Prison of the FSB under the charge of a putsch preparation, as an extremist material. The court dismissed the above petition of the prosecutor's office; however, the latter intends to challenge the ruling.