News

Today, the challenge to the panel of judges of the Court of Appeal in the case against Avaz Zeinalov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Khural", who was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment for tax evasion and receiving a large bribe, was rejected. On May 13, the consideration of the appeal against the sentence will be continued by the current composition of the panel of judges.

In Nalchik, participants of the today's rally spoke against tyranny of law enforcement agents and human rights violations in Kabardino-Balkaria. The protest action was attended by about twenty persons, not including journalists and policemen on duty.

The British Foreign Office recommended British citizens not to go in the near future to Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, and some Districts of the Stavropol Territory because of high terrorist activity.

Today, in Baku, workers of the Gas and Oil Producing Administration (GOPA) "Bibi-Aibat" of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), held a warning strike to demand higher wages. This was reported by Mirvari Gakhramanly, the head of the Committee to Protect Rights of Oil-Industry Workers. The SOCAR denied the information about the strike.

On May 1, the construction of the highway Alyat-Astara was again stopped because of the strike. The protest action was held by operators of heavy equipment and workers at the site of construction works in the Salyan District.

The Nasimi District Court of Baku arrested for two months Musa Rakhim, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), on suspicion of hooliganism. This was reported by his advocate Asabali Mustafaev.

On May 2, the Nasimi District Court of Baku extended the arrest of Mamed Azizov, an activist of the civil movement "Nida" (Shout), accused of illegal possession of drugs, till July 7.

17 representatives of the Southern Federal District (SFD) became laureates of the 14th All-Russian contest of historical research papers of senior schoolchildren "Person in History, Russia, 20th Century", organized by the International Organization "Memorial".

During the confrontation between students and the police that occurred on May 1 in Tbilisi on Rustaveli Avenue, law enforcement agents detained the journalists who worked at the place. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics has called on the police not to interfere with the work of the journalists and give explanations in connection with the incident. All the detainees were released by the evening of May 1, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports.

Three young men, detained on the case of the terror act in the US city of Boston, were arrested. Two of them are charged of concealing and destroying evidences, and another one of giving false testimony.

Five teenagers from the group of eleven Georgian citizens, detained in South Ossetia on charges of illegal crossing of the border, were released.

In the district centre of Chokhatauri, staff members of the local hospital went on strike, demanding to pay wage arrears. The health professionals state that the strike will last till their demands are fulfilled.

In the farm yard of Bobry near the town of Krasnoslobodsk of the Volgograd Region, Daniel Enzhil, the leader of members of the informal youth movement for the protection of the floating landing stage, went on a hunger strike because of the plans of the leaders of the Volgograd Academy of Physical Education (VAPE) to demolish the old building, the river attraction of the region the floating landing stage.

In Vladikavkaz, the house of Anatoly Sidakov, Chairman of the North-Ossetian Branch of the "Yabloko" Party, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Mir Kavkaza" (World of the Caucasus), was searched. According to the Anatoly Sidakov's version, investigators were looking for weapons; however, he believes the political order was the real reason for the search.

Khalida Khalid, a researcher of literature, a citizen of Azerbaijan, was arrested in the city of Tabriz in northern Iran together with four activists of the movement for the rights of Azerbaijanis of South (Iranian) Azerbaijan.

Three persons spent the 31st day of their hunger strike near the business centre of Bidzina Ivanishvili, Prime Minister of Georgia. The participants of the protest action demand to issue long-term and low-interest loans to pay off the mortgage and to suspend evictions until the loans are repaid.

Today, about 60 representatives of the Other Russia and nationalists had to leave the festive column of the May Day march in Volgograd at the request of the police. This was reported by Leonid Makhinya, an activist of the Other Russia.

The mother of Ali Dobriev, a former staff member of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Ingushetia, who is serving his sentence at the Federal Public Institution (FPI) Penal Colony (PC) No. 13 in Nizhny Tagil of the Sverdlovsk Region, complains that his son is subjected to harassment on ethnic or religious grounds by the administration and personnel of the penal colony. This information is going to check the members of the Public Supervisory Commission.

At the Penal Colony No. 7 (known as IK-7) of the Department for the Republic of Mordovia of the Russian Federal Correction Service (FSIN), a group of prisoners, most of them being natives from Northern Caucasus, went on a hunger strike to protest against their custody conditions, as well as they way they are treated by the colony personnel, relatives of the prisoners report. So far, there was no official confirmation of the protest action from the prison administration.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern about the escalation of the conflict between residents of the settlement of Kudepsta and developers of the Olympic site - a thermal power plant (TPP). Russian authorities and the organizers of the Olympic Games should take steps to resolve the conflict and prevent acts of aggression applied by employees of private security agencies (known as ChOPs) to local residents, says the statement released by the HRW.