News

In the evening of October 19, bailiffs of Narimanov District of Baku confiscated the property of the independent newspaper "Khural" (Congress).

Yesterday, on October 18, in Geneva (Switzerland) the 13th Meeting of countries participating in the Convention against Torture, Georgy Tugushi, Georgian Ombudsman, was elected a member of the UN Committee against Torture for 2012-2015. 97 votes were given for his candidacy.

On October 18, the District Court of the Shamil District of Dagestan held a session on the case of teenager's beating. The figurants in the case were three police officers of the Police Division of Shamil District of Dagestan. The court decided to remand the criminal case to the prosecutor for a more complete and objective investigation.

Dokku Umarov, the leader of militants in the North Caucasus, and Akhmed Zakaev, ex-Prime Minister of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who are in the wanted list of the Russian law enforcement agencies on terrorism charges, are involved in murder of three Chechen natives in Turkey. This was declared today by Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya.

Russian human rights defenders expressed their concern about the fate of the businessman Stanislav Kankiya, native of Georgia, prisoner of the metropolitan prison "Matrosskaya Tishina" (Sailors' Silence). He has been under investigation on charges of fraud for more than 17 months. During that time the 47-year-old man got four apoplectic attacks, got half-paralyzed and nearly blind; however, his pre-trial restrictions were not changed.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled to collect from the Russian authorities 11,000 euros in favour of Gennady Shuvalov, a 38-year-old ex-policeman from Volgograd, who was sentenced in 2006 for selling drug and who complained of having been beaten at the SIZO (pre-trial prison). This is reported by the press service of the ECtHR.

Athletes from Karachay-Cherkessia have won three gold and one bronze medals in the World Championship for Wrestling on Belts, which took place on October 12-16 in Bishkek.

A 16-year-old schoolgirl from Ingushetia was convicted by the court in Chechnya for assistance to participants of the armed underground. The underage girl was sentenced to imprisonment to be served in a juvenile correctional facility.

The number of victims of poisoning at the canteen of the Makhachkala Airport has reached 40 people. All of them were preliminary diagnosed with 'food poisoning'. Some of the victims are in grave condition, the Department of the "Rospotrebnadzor" (Russian Federal Agency for Consumer Supervision) of Dagestan.

Today, Armenian ecologists held a picket in front of the residence of the President of Armenia; they urged to save Lake Sevan. The rally was organized at the initiative of the organization "Ecolur".

The Chechen law enforcement authorities investigate two deaths of teenagers in Gudermes, the second largest city in the republic. According to the investigators, the children committed suicide; the preliminary cause was poor living conditions in single-parent families.

Today, in Rostov-on-Don, the North-Caucasian District Military Court (NCDMC) convicted a soldier of a military unit of the Southern Military District and his mother of espionage for Georgia and sentenced them to 10 and 8 years of imprisonment.

In the city of Grozny, a 25-year-old Ramzan Dadaev, a native of Chechnya, who suffers from mental disorders, has disappeared. This was reported by his relatives in the open letter, published by the "Caucasian Knot" under the news "Resident of Dagestan claims kidnapping of his father and his friend".

In Azerbaijan, the customs officers of the airport of Nakhichevan town confiscated luggage belonging to Elmar Abbasov, the regional correspondent of the "Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety" (IRFS) of Azerbaijan. This occurred during Abbasov's return from Istanbul.

In Armenia, the ecological organizations express their concern about the fate of the most abundant Trchkan Falls situated on the border of Shirak and Lori Regions. The ecologists demand that the Ministry of Nature Protection should stop the construction of a small hydroelectric power plant (HPP) there.

15 Ingush policemen, involved in the attack on Dagestani fans, were dismissed. This was reported by Nizami Kaziev, Acting Prime Minister of Dagestan.

The Prosecutor's Office of the town of Karachaevsk initiated a criminal case on the fact of misappropriation of budgetary funds against Sapar Laipanov, ex-Mayor of the town, and against Vladimir Solovyov, ex-Deputy Chairman of the City Legislative Assembly.

On October 17, in Rostov-on-Don, eight activists of the oppositional movements "Left-Wing Front" and "People's Freedom Party" once again held a picket for cancellation of the illegal, according to their opinion, parliamentary election appointed on December 4. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Vladislav Ryazantsev, the organizer of the rally.

On October 17, the management of the German public legal TV Channel "MDR" disseminated a statement in which it stated that the performance of the "MDR" ballet dancers at the concert in the city of Grozny had damaged the reputation of the entire ballet company and TV Channel in general.

On October 17, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) accepted to consideration the complaint of Suren Gazaryan and Dmitry Shevchenko, the members of the Board of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", who had been detained in February near the alleged summer residence of Alexander Tkachov, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory.