News

Relatives of the Dagestani residents, who serve their terms in the penal colony No. 8 of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, ask to transfer the convicted persons to serve their terms to their homeland or in the geographically nearest republics of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD).

Last night and in the evening of June 17, in Dagestan, three attacks on businessmen at once were committed; one businessman was killed. This is reported by the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

Participation of residents of Southern Russia in the oppositional "March of Millions"; formation of government and lawyers' strike in Armenia; court's verdict on Oleg Shein's lawsuit on cancellation of elections in Astrakhan; visit of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE to the region of Karabakh conflict; presenting charges to Mirzaev and restart of preliminary investigation of his case, - look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of June 11-17, 2012, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The Service to monitor financial activities of political associations of the Georgian Control Chamber appealed to the Prosecutor's Office with a recommendation to check information on the ruling party's financing of medical services to the population of the city of Samtredia.

Valery Kuznetsov, ex-Prosecutor of the Rostov Region, who seeks reinstatement in office, filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against the District Court's refusal to consider the case in the Rostov Region rather than in Moscow.

28 persons became the participants in the five-day ecological action "Clean Forest, Pure Spring", which ended on June 15 in Adygea in the territory of the "Bolshoi Tkhach" Natural Park. The number of the participants included 16 volunteer students and teachers of the Maikop State University, senior schoolchildren of the secondary school No. 4 of the farm yard of Shaumyan of the Maikop District; they cleaned tourist camping areas and equipped springs.

In Tuapse, on the case against ecologists Suren Gazaryan and Evgeny Vitishko, accused of damaging a fence around the so-called summer cottage of Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, the court dismissed the Suren Gazaryan's motion to challenge lawyer Oleg Kochubin and to conduct self-defence. Besides, the judge dismissed the ecologist's motion to challenge the composition of the court. At present, the court session pronounced a break till 2:00 p.m.

On June 11, in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, under unascertained mysterious circumstances, three residents of the village of Arshty Bai-Ali Makhauri, Bekkhan Zhukalaev, and Islam Bazgiev disappeared. This was reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". On the next day, burnt body of Bekkhan Zhukalaev was found the on the outskirts of a village.

The Cossack outposts with slogans "Down with nickel!", "We did not vote for nickel!" went on patrol along the sectors of Moscow highway, Novonicolaevsky and Novoanninsky districts of Volgograd region and Borisoglebsk district of Voronezh region.

Two assaults at prayer houses where representatives of religious community Jehovah's Witnesses hold their meetings were registered in the South of Russia, i.e. Sochi and Volgodonsk, Grigory Martynov, representative of Management Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation, informed the "Caucasian Knot" today. There were no victims.

Relatives of two residents of Khasavyurt, Yusup Arsabiev and Zaur Khajiev, reported their disappearance to the police of Dagestan.

Tonight, in the village of Ordjonikidzevskaya, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, strong wind de-roofed the cardiology unit of the district hospital; the patients were evacuated.

In Dagestan, Khaidarbek Magomedgadjiev, a resident of Yuzhno-Sukhokumsk, has stated that he was given a permit by employees of the Dagestani Investigatory Committee to take the body of his son Abdulaziz Magomedgadjiev, who was killed in a special operation on July 8, from the Makhachkala morgue only against a written certificate that the relatives have no claims against law enforcement bodies. According to the father, the bodies of three other casualties were given out to relatives on the same condition.

The project named "Academy of Young Citizen" was finalized by awarding the authors of best civil initiatives at the final conference.

A criminal case of three suspects of raping a 14-year-old girl from the Kursk Region committed in the village of Nartan has been delivered to the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR).

On June 15, an initiative group of students held a protest action near the Ministry of Defence (MoD) demanding to protect the rights of veterans' children, namely, free education and better social conditions.

The Ninth International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" has received this year a record number of applications – 1250; of them, 150 films from 44 countries were selected," Mikael Stamboltsyan, Director of Festival Programmes, said at a press conference on June 15. The Film Festival "Golden Apricot" will take place in Yerevan on July 8-15.

The Institute of Media Rights (IMR), engaged in defence of the freedom of the press and expression in Azerbaijan, has announced a start of the public campaign with the aim to adopt the defamation law, which cancels criminal responsibility for slander and insult.

Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Special Envoy on Freedom of the Media, has expressed her concern in connection with the recent facts of the prosecution of journalists and restrictions of freedom of information in Azerbaijan.

On June 14, in Yerevan, the union of NGOs "Save Yerevan" organized a rally to protect historical monuments. More than 100 participants of the rally under the slogan reading: "Not to be destroyed" marched along the streets of the Armenian capital of Armenia. The stopped near every historical monument, which had faced and continued to face a threat of destruction, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.