News

Today about 50 people held an action of protest in front of the Embassy of France in Baku in connection with caricatures of Prophet Muhammad published in "Charlie Hebdo" French satiric weekly. Center of freedom of conscience and confession also condemned the caricatures and the film "Innocence of Muslims".

About 3000 convicts of prison No 17 of Rustavi, Georgia, went on a hunger strike. According to their relatives, the action was a sign of solidarity with the convicts who underwent torture.

The Grozny office of the Interregional Public Organization "Centre of Caucasian Initiative" has hosted a presentation of the book by Zoya Svetova "The Innocent Found Guilty", dedicated to inmates who serve their terms under fabricated cases. The presentation was attended by Zara Murtazalieva, a Chechen girl, who spent eight and a half years in a colony in Mordovia on charges of terrorism.

A pre-election rally of the election bloc "Bidzina Ivanishvili – Georgian Dream" organized in the city of Zugdidi was attended by several thousands of supporters of the bloc from all districts of the region Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and by activists who came from Tbilisi, Poti, and other cities.

Today, six activists of student movements of Georgia went on hunger strike in front of the House of Justice. Their main demand is to release the four participants of protest actions, detained for trying to break through the cordon and disobeying the police.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the rally held in Vladikavkaz by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) within the All-Russian protest action was attended by about 300 people.

The mass street actions in support of Syrian Circassians scheduled in Maikop and Nalchik on September 23 have been cancelled, as reported by the members of the organizing committee for the actions. Now, the actions will be held in the form of solo pickets and meetings.

The tenants of the house in Astrakhan, who were evacuated by rescuers in the evening on September 21 because a crack in the wall of their house, returned to their flats.

Today in Sochi, activists of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" have held solo pickets in support of the demands of the population of the Voronezh and Volgograd Regions to ban the development of nickel deposits in the area of the Khopyor River Hopper, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Today, a rally was organized in Stavropol by the Territorial Committee of the CPRF: "No to housing and municipal terror!" The action was attended by over 200 people, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Georgia has fired the employees of Gldani Prison No. 8, who were noted for mistreating inmates, Giorgi Tugushi, Minister of Punishment, Probation and Legal Assistance, said today.

Today, a rally in this city against the rise in utility tariffs was organized by the Karachay-Cherkessian Branch of the CPRF.

The Chechen Prosecutor's Office has recognized as illegal the actions of the Republic's Department of the Russian Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimuschestvo), aimed at forced eviction of residents out of hostels in Grozny. The Department bosses have been warned.

More than 500 hectares of agrarian land was demined in Chechnya by servicemen of the engineer-sapper units of the federal armed forces in the past six months.

Four policemen were lost and 11 more wounded in the special operation conducted on September 20-21 in the Vedeno District of Chechnya. Also four militants were killed, according to a source from the police.

Convoy guards are regularly insulting and provoking to aggression Bashir Khamkhoev, who is accused of the terror act at the Domodedovo Airport in 2011, said his advocate Tatiana Okushko. Another advocate Vladimir Kocharyan, who is defending another figurant in the case Ilez Yandiev, has also reported about pressure. An employee of the press service of the FSIN (Russian federal Penitentiary Service) refused to comment on the statements of the defence.

On September 20, the Supreme Court of Dagestan began a trial against Zhairula Umarov, who is suspected of committing a sexual assault against his minor stepchild. The defendant's advocate states gross violations in the course of investigation.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has condemned the ill-treatment of prisoners in prisons of Georgia, urging the country's authorities to immediately investigate these facts and bring perpetrators to justice.

Rustam Makhmudov, a native of Chechnya, accused of killing the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya, refuses to plead guilty. His defence will apply for a trial by jury, said Darya Trenina, his advocate.

Today, the students of Tbilisi higher schools, who take part in the protest movement in connection with announced facts of prisoners' torture in Gldani Prison, have temporarily interrupted the action.