News

The participants of the today's several-thousand-strong oppositional rally in Baku have expressed their support for the presidential candidate from the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Gasanli. Speakers at the rally called on citizens to take an active part in the voting on October 9 – the president election day.

As reported by Kirill Koroteev, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", on September 26 a complaint was submitted to the Grozny Garrison Military Court against the decision to close the inquiry of the criminal case about the death in February 2000 of 24 residents of Chechnya at the bombing of the village of Katyr-Yurt, Achkhoi-Martan District.

At the 12th International Investment Forum "Sochi-2013", the Republic of Ingushetia found partners for seven new projects with the total investments nearing 5.5 billion roubles, said the head of the republic Yunus-Bek Evkurov. According to preliminary estimates, these projects will create up to 5000 new jobs.

On September 27, in the course of debates, the state prosecutor asked to find Dayanat Babaev, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), guilty of hooliganism and sentence him to four years in prison, despite the fact that the victim in the case had recalled his application. The advocates and the defendant himself insist on his acquittal.

Two registries of investment projects and proposals have been presented by Dagestan at the ongoing Investment Forum "Sochi-2013". As reported by the spokesman of the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations of Dagestan, out of the presented projects, 33 have a priority status.

On September 26, the Armenian radio stations "Radio-Hay" and "Hay-FM" sent an open letter to Karen Andreasyan, the Ombudsman in Armenia, asking him to check whether the initiative of the Committee for State Revenues to audit their financial condition has no attributes of political persecution.

On September 25, the authorities of the Volgograd Region initiated a meeting with the participants of the fan-like hunger strike of mothers of children with disabilities; however, most of them could not be present as they were not warned in advance, said Svetlana Selenok, one of the hunger-strikers. According to her story, now the action is supported by 40 mothers.

According to the lawyer Khalid Bagirov, the verdict passed on the case of Hilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh), was based on falsified data. The conviction was also criticized by Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of Media, and leaders of human rights organizations of Azerbaijan and Russia.

The Azerbaijan's Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed an appeal filed by Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the civil movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl), against the refusal of the Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) to register him as a presidential candidate. Thus, Ilgar Mamedov has finally lost chances to participate in the presidential election.

When speaking at the United Nations, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has expressed the opinion of the majority of the country's political forces. This was stated by Georgian political analysts questioned by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Two more persons out of the total five killed in a special operation in Derbent have been pre-identified; among them – the wife of the killed Sharif Akhmedov, the head of the armed grouping, said a source from the Dagestani law enforcement bodies.

In Azerbaijan, the court found Hilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh), guilty on charges of treason, inciting ethnic hatred and drug possession and sentenced him to five years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony.

The repeated consideration by the Kizilyurt District Court of Dagestan of the murder of a woman from the village of Nechaevka, supposedly committed by her uncle, has been rescheduled for Monday, September 30. The reason is in the illness of the defence lawyer, said Salimat Kadyrova, the victim's lawyer.

The Court of Appeal (CoA) of Nagorno-Karabakh has decided to continue the consideration of the appeal filed by advocates in the case against students Rafael Avagyan and David Barsegyan, who were sentenced to 11 and 10 years of imprisonment for treason and espionage, respectively.

Today, five militants were killed during the special operation, which takes place in the city of Derbent. This was reported by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC). According to the NAC's information, the number of killed men includes the leader of the local militants.

Two supporters of the public initiative "Pre-Parliament" were seriously injured as a result of the beating. This was reported at the statement of the organization. The police of the Arabkir community of Yerevan instituted a criminal case on the fact of beating.

This morning, a group of 147 Chechen pilgrims left Grozny by plane to go for hajj to Saudi Arabia. This evening, the next group is to depart. This was reported by a representative of the Muftiyat of Chechnya.

On September 26, in Volgograd, participants of the hunger strike organized by parents of many children met Irina Guseva, City Mayor, who promised to address their problems. Irina Guseva said that she would find the time to visit each hunger-striker.

The Sochi administration has prohibited the march and rally of activists of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders) community in support of tolerance scheduled for September 26. During the Olympic Games in Sochi, rights of LGBT community will not be violated. This was stated on the same day by Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.

The villagers appealed to the Russian President and the Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation, asking to review the results of the elections because of possible falsifications. They have also expressed their distrust to the head of the republic, who, in their opinion, contributed to the re-election of the incumbent district head for the third term.