News

The court in Denmark sentenced a twenty-five-year-old Russian citizen, native of Chechnya, Lors Dukaev to 12 years of custody for blasting a bomb in one of the hotels of Copenhagen. The City court of Copenhagen passed a judgment according to which Dukaev had to serve his custody term in Denmark and then be deported to Russia.

Rustam Makhmudov whom the investigation considers executor of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of "Novaya Gazeta", was detained in Chechnya. This was reported by attorney Murad Musaev who represents the interests of Makhmudov's brother Jabrail.

The court in Batumi, which considers the case of espionage in favour of Russian secret services, would not admit defence witnesses, said lawyer Gocha Sagrishvili, who is defending four accused persons at the trial. According to his story, he does not consider the case "through the political prism", but believes that the investigation is conducted with violations of law and human rights. Another lawyer - Gela Nikoleishvili - supports this opinion.

The oppositional movement "People's Assembly" has spread an appeal running that dozens of people detained after the dispersal of the protest action on May 26 are kept in custody in most severe conditions. In this regard, the movement asks human rights and other nongovernmental organizations, as well as lawyers, to provide assistance to detainees.

Seventeen human rights organizations of Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia state that the dispersal of the protest rally in Tbilisi on May 26 was followed by political repressions in Georgia. They addressed the US State Department, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the diplomatic missions accredited in Georgia, urging them to urgently set up a group for monitoring the current events and related trials, and to publicly condemn the excessive use of force by the police at the dispersal.

Within the framework of the international action "STOP Abortions", an action "For the life of unborn babies" was held in Krasnodar on May 29.

Today, the sitting of the Bureau of the Georgian Parliament dismissed the idea to set up an ad hoc parliamentary commission for inquiry into the dispersal of the opposition's rally in Tbilisi in Rustaveli Avenue on May 26.

Under the amnesty law adopted on proposal of President Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian authorities have released 274 inmates from the country's penal institutions. This was announced today by Arsen Babayan, the press secretary of the local Ministry of Justice.

Lors Dukaev, 25, a Russian citizen and a native of Chechnya was found guilty of terrorism by a court in Denmark.

The Moscow City Court will consider the murder case of anti-fascist Ilya Dzhaparidze by means of a jury. It was decided on May 24 at the preliminary hearing on the case.

Last respects ceremony towards President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh will be held in Moscow Cultural Center of the Ministry of Defense at eleven o'clock in the morning today. A representative of Press service of the Cultural Center confirmed this information.

A restaurant in Makhachkala located in the territory of the town's beach, at the coastline of the Caspian Sea, was fired upon from self-firers at night of May, 29, one person was wounded.

An officer of law enforcement bodies was killed at night of May, 29, in the town of Kizlyar, Dagestan. The attacker managed to escape.

A member of a rock group "Dead Dolphins" from Grozny Alexander Ponomarev was shot down in Moscow tonight.

The investigation on the case of murder of "Spartak" fan Egor Sviridov in Moscow considers that the scuffle which resulted in the fan's death was initiated by natives of the Caucasus and the conflict emerged from "the difference of behaviour codes". The defendants have studied the materials of the investigation and the indictment is being prepared for referring to Public prosecutor's office for validation, Committee of Inquiry of the Russian Federation (CIR) reported.

The Eighth International Film Festival "Golden Apricot", which will be held on July 10-17 this year, has already received more than 600 entries from 57 countries worldwide.

At the playwrights' festival "Rostov Readings" held in Rostov-on-Don on May 25-27, apart from the play "Prebiotics" by Vladimir Golyshev, the play by the playwright Anna Donatova "Cat Is Guilty of My Sexuality" was also forbidden to demonstration. According to the author, it was cancelled at the last minute.

On May 27, an opposition activist Ara Ovannisyan, convicted on the case of the events of March 1-2, 2008, in Yerevan, was released under the amnesty from the penal institution "Sevan".

High concentration of dust in the air has become one of the most acute problems for residents of the capital of South Ossetia, after they started replacing underground utilities. City authorities lack cleaning equipment to combat the dust; while local residents have to put on respiratory masks.

On May 28, the Office of the Ombudsman of Georgia published a list of 152 persons detained during the May protest actions, found in 17 IVSs (temporary isolation facilities) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), located both in Tbilisi and in regions of the country.