News

48 children from the Chechen Republic, aged 8-14, went to celebrate the New Year in the Moscow Kremlin. This was reported by the Republic's Ministry of Education and Sciences.

Today, the Khosta District Court found Sergey Basmanov, the human rights defender from Sochi, guilty of disorderly conduct committed on the day of voting at the elections to the State Duma. Sergey Basmanov was sentenced to an administrative penalty in the form of 10-day arrest.

On December, 25, a session of Committee for clemency to the convicts will be held in Georgia. On this day it will be decided how many convicts will be recommended for clemency.

An action of protest against adoption of a bill criminalizing denial of genocide of the Armenians by France passed off On December, 22, near the French Embassy in Baku. The action was organized by International Center of Diaspora and Azerbaijani Community of War Veterans.

Alexander Tolmachev, Rostov journalist, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper "Upolnomochen Zayavit" ("Empowered to State") and journal "Pro Rostov" ("About Rostov") was taken into custody in connection with the case on which he was accused of extortion. This preventive punishment was sanctioned on December, 22, by the court of Novocherkassk. On December, 20, district court recalled the sentence to the journalist on accusation of slander.

Two co-chairmen of Legal Committee of the Congress of the USA Frank Wolf and James McGovern sent a message to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev calling to release political prisoners.

In the settlement of Nardaran, Baku, believers are regularly arrested: at night policemen come, without any grounds put them into cars and drive them away to police departments, local residents report.

Six residents of Ulyanovsk are suspected of inciting hatred based on ethnic grounds against players and fans of the "Anji" FC (Makhachkala). According to the prosecutor's office, fans of the "Volga" FC prepared and distributed leaflets with extremist content.

As reported by the Public Oversight Commission (POC) of the Krasnodar Territory, the employees of the Belorechenskaya Colony subject convicted juveniles to psychological pressure.

Members of the commission investigating the assassination of Khadjimurad Kamalov, the founder of the newspaper "Chernovik" (Draft), demanded to reveal, for what purposes the funds allocated for support of the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) went, and urged the federal authorities to finance the programme "Safe City".

At the trial on the case of the attack on Nalchik, the court extended the detention period for 54 defendants for another three months. For three defendants Kazbek Budtuev, Zalim Ulimbashev, and Sergey Kaziev the pre-trial restrictions in the form of recognizance not to leave were remained unchanged. Besides, at the court session, the court listened to the testimonies of witnesses in the case.

The Volgograd Regional Court found the senior investigator of the district police division for bribery and ordered him to pay a large fine of 960,000 roubles, the Regional Court reports.

Yesterday, on December 21, in Rodop Boulevard in Makhachkala, about 500 persons attended a rally, during which they planned to protest against the results of the election to the Russian State Duma and the arrests of civil activists.

Demetrio Vilagra, Mayor of the Brazilian city of Campinas, has signed a resolution adopted by the city parliament on recognition zing the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Turkey. The city Mayoralty has officially informed the Armenian Embassy in Brazil about it.

The case against the journalist Maria Plieva should be directed to a new trial at the magistrate court. This decision was made today at the session of the Lenin District Court of Vladikavkaz.

In the Volgograd Region, 15 officers of the regional Department of the Russian Federal Correction Service (known as "UFSIN") have been brought to "strict disciplinary responsibility" after VIP cells intended for crime bosses were found in Colony No. 12.

Pyatimat Khashagulgova, the wife of Issa Khashagulgov, who is suspected of involvement in the terror act committed in Vladikavkaz and is currently kept in SIZO (pre-trial prison), said that she was not allowed to meet her husband.

Two documentaries devoted to the life of convicts in Rostov region became prize-winners of the First St. Petersburg international festival "Nadezhda" ("Hope"). The authors are convicts serving penalty in the colonies of the region.

A hunger strike of eight builders of a trimmers' team who were reconditioning neurology unit of Timashevsk district hospital is going on in the town of Timashevsk, Krasnodar region. The workers demand from "Yug-S" company to settle accounts with the team for the work they have done.

The Senate of Mexico has not adopted any resolutions in connection with the events in the town of Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh. This was explained by representatives of the Senate of Mexico with the addition that two closing paragraphs of the document expressing the opinion of one of the committees were read out at a plenary session of the Senate.