News

Terror act in Afghanistan which took lives of six Georgian soldiers; infective episode in the kindergarten in Rostov-on-Don; recently adopted law establishing criminal penalties for defamation on the Internet and arrest of an opposition activist in Azerbaijan, - look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of June 3-9, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

As reported by a source from the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of Moscow, a special operation held by law enforcers in the Muslim house of worship, located in Ugreshskaya Street in Moscow, resulted in detention of more than 300 believers.

Parents of the persons who perished on October 13, 2005, inNalchik are disappointed with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the case of refusal of Russian authorities to give out bodies of suspected militants for burial.

As stated by the spokesman of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the families of the Georgian soldiers, who were killed by a suicide attack in Afghanistan, will receive assistance from the state. Experts offer to take further steps to ensure the safety of Georgian troops both within peacekeeping force and in the country itself.

The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) of Azerbaijan includes the members of a number of parties and public associations of the country, human rights defenders and opposition leaders who plan to nominate a united candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

Derbent policemen did not allow holding a rally against renaming Sovietskaya Street into Geidar Aliev Street, the organizers report. The rally was to be held in the park in Sovietskaya Street. Since morning, Derbent policemen have cordoned off the venue and blocked all the entrances, the organizers have reported.

Marik Dudaev, a resident of South Ossetia, convicted in Georgia in 2005, was released on June 7, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Lira Tskhovrebov, the chair of the Association of Women of South Ossetia for Freedom and Human Rights.

In Chechnya, the Prosecutor's Office is seeking to recognize the website named "Ministry of Truth of the Russian Federation" as extremist, in connection with the publication of the audio and video materials put by the Russian Ministry of Justice into the list of extremist materials.

On June 7, the Sumgait City Court held a preliminary hearing on the case of Dashgyn Melikov, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), chaired by Judge Agil Abbasov. The defence moved a number of motions. However, since the prosecutor was not ready to express his attitude to the motions, the trial was postponed till June 11.

The Armenian government has decided to pay lump-sum compensations to socially vulnerable residents of 23 villages of the Armavir Region, who were most affected by hail. The total amount of lump-sum payments makes 80 million drams, or about 193,000 US dollars.

On June 7, the Investigating Department for Dagestan of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) presented to Ilmutdin Gamzaev, the head of the municipal formation "Kayakent District", an accusation under the "abuse of office" and "service forgery". Gamzaev's advocate claims that his client's actions contain no crime attributes.

On June 7, Buberd Maremov, the advocate of Islam Beshkurov, who was detained in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of the KBR against the ruling of the District Court of Baksan to arrest his client for two months.

The investigation of the criminal case opened against the journalist Nikolai Yarst, accused of illegal drug possession, is over and ready for approval by the public prosecutor and further sending to the court. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by the defendant's lawyer Alexander Popkov.

During a one-day trip to the village of Didi, Khurvaleti, Gugutiantkari and Ditsi of the Shida Kartli Region of Georgia, organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MFA) of Georgia, members of the Parliament, diplomatic missions and international organizations got acquainted with the problems of the residents of the villages separated by the new border.

The Krasnodar Regional Court has cancelled the decision on coercive measures of medical nature in regard to the ex-militiaman Ilya Galkin, accused of committing a series of explosions in Sochi in 2008-2009, and sent the defendant to a new forensic-psychiatric examination, said a source from the Territorial Prosecutor's Office.

Villagers from Mrgashat, Armavir Region of Armenia, where on May 12 a huge hail killed the crops, said that the seeds provided by the authorities are not enough to compensate for the damages and pay back the loans.

The Tbilisi City Court has fined two activists of the NGO "Free Zone" for their insulting cries about Russian president Vladimir Putin during a protest action against actions of Russian border guards on the border with South Ossetia.

Valentina Tedeeva, the chief physician of the maternity ward of the Republic's ClinicalHospital, accused of selling a child, was put from custody into home arrest because of her health problems, Eduard Gusov, an assistant to the head of the Investigating Department for North Ossetia.

The trial on the case of Vazgen Khachikyan, the former head of the welfare service, accused of a fraud with the money of the Pension Fund, has been rescheduled for June 13 due to the illness of one of the defendants – Ovannes Grigoryan, the former head of the division of payments of the above welfare service.

On June 10 and 11, 117 Armenian lawyers are going to hold a two-day strike in protest against the working methods of the Court of Cassation (CoC), in particular, against the "arbitrariness in the application of a number of laws." The aim of the strike is to draw the attention of all the branches of power to the unacceptable practices of the Armenian CoC, including the use of "double standards".