News

The office of the Russian President's Plenipotentiary in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) will check the legality of the decision to ban hijabs at Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University.

On Thursday, December 23, the District Court of Vilnius ruled that the case of Egle Kusaite would be considered in the closed regime. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Vitautas Mezhrikaitis, a human rights defender from the Lithuanian Public Association "Save All Chechen Children".

An inspector of the Chief Department of the Russian Investigatory Committee for the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD) and his brother were injured in an explosion of a self-made bomb, which was triggered by unidentified persons in Nalchik.

One more criminal case has been opened against Sergey Tsapok, the main figurant in the case of the massacre of 12 persons in the village of Kuschevskaya: this time he is suspected of extortion.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Rostov Region failed to be properly coordinated during the action in memory of the perished student Maxim Sychov and did not interfere into the incident in Zimovniki, where a young Chechen was beaten. This was stated by the participants in the sitting of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region, held on December 23.

A woman-therapist of the second district hospital of the village of Gvardeiskoe, Nadterechny District of Chechnya, was detained red-handed at taking a bribe. According to the local department of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) the doctor extorted money from an elderly woman for issuing a direction to medical commission for establishing disability, a source from law enforcement bodies of Chechnya has reported.

The Russian Federation Council (FC) has approved the ban for heads of Russian subjects to name them presidents. According to the bill, heads of regions may choose the names of their posts with account of historical and cultural traditions. In the republics of the Caucasus, presidents now exist in Adygea, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.

In the city of Izberbash, Dagestan, militiamen opened fire at a Mercedes car, the driver of which did not obey militiamen's command to stop. As a result, one person was wounded and three others detained.

Three employees of the separate battalion of the road traffic patrol of the STSI (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate) of the Makhachkala UVD, who made a "Lava-149" crew, were placed in the Republic's Clinical Hospital after last night's explosion in Nikolaeva Street, said a source from the local MIA.

A pre-inquiry check is undertaken in this city on the fact of detection of an explosive device near a movie theatre. This was announced by the press service of the Investigatory Department for the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian ICPO.

In the Stavropol Territory, the Academic Board of the Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University has prohibited students and teachers to enter the university buildings in hijabs, with piercing or bare stomachs.

Lyubov Tankieva, a resident of the city of Malgobek (Ingushetia), has addressed human rights defenders on the fact that her son Tamerlan Tankiev was put on the federal wanted list for his involvement in the crimes committed in the territory of Ingushetia. His photo among those searched appeared on the official website of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia.

On December 22, more than 70 veterans of the war in Afghanistan went out to hold another picket in the "Afghans' Park" in Makhachkala. In the course of the action, they announced an appeal to the authorities, in which the veterans presented the essence of their problems and complaints addressed to state officials.

The participants of the press conference: "Who benefits from kindling interethnic enmity?" have called to break the existing negative stereotypes about different nations, including those originating from the Caucasus.

During the first 11 months of 2010, 80 members of the armed underground were killed in the Chechen Republic; 80 more militants and 180 helpers were detained: the data was presented at a meeting of power agents in Khankala.

Recently, human rights defenders have been receiving a lot of calls from relatives of inmates, who are serving their terms. Most of them complain that natives of North-Caucasian republics are punished for no reason and almost all of them are kept either in the stringent custody conditions (SCC) or in cell-type rooms (CTR). This is stated in the message of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", received by the "Caucasian Knot".

The General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation has sent to the court the criminal case initiated against the natives of Chechnya Apti and Aisha (Aishat) Magmadov, accused of recruiting the citizen of Lithuania Egle Kusaite for committing a terror act in Russia.

In the village of Shalushka, located in the suburb of Nalchik, an armed attack was committed on a militia post. This was reported by the Investigatory Department for Kabardino-Balkaria of the Russian Investigatory Committee.

The Warsaw District Court has ruled not to consider the lawsuit about extradition to Russia of Ahmed Zakaev, former head of the government of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who was put by Russia on the international wanted list, because he is not in Poland at the moment.

In Rostov-on-Don, local militia is searching the son of Jafar Bikmaev, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Southern Russia. For the last time he saw his son - Nail Bikmaev, an Imam of one of city's mosques, - on December 19; then, the father addressed the militia.