News

The Nizami District court of the city of Gandzha, chaired by Judge Emin Akhundov, began hearings of the case of activist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, accused of evading military service. The activist rejects the accusation; his supporters also believe that he is accused for political reasons, for his active civil position and his actions in social networks.

As stated by Massimo Bonfatti, head of the public volunteer association "World in Motion", at the conference held in Italy, it is necessary to convey to journalists and public figures from different countries the present realities of Northern Caucasus, to tell the truth about the wars in Chechnya; we need readiness of people from different parties to stop military confrontation; and it is also necessary to disclose the default information about the Beslan tragedy.

Residents of the city of Argun report that within the large-scale reconstruction and building of new objects the authorities intend to demolish part of the city cemetery. This causes hidden discontent among the people, although there were no open protest actions on this occasion in the city.

Sabitbai (Sabitbi) Amanov, assassinated in Makhachkala, was an associate of Said Buryatskiy, militants' ideologist, who had been murdered earlier in Ingushetia; Amanov actually headed the Makhachkala subversive and terrorist grouping. This was reported by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC). The counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced in the district.

Nikolai Zakharov, Military Commissar of the Chelyabinsk Region, has stated that now the army will not draft residents and natives of the Caucasian republics who live in other regions of Russia; however, this information is not confirmed by the group of informational support of the Central Military District of the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Provocative leaflets in Ingushetia forced law enforcers to strengthen; avalanche blocks communication between Russia and Georgia over "Verkhni Lars"; police disperses another protest action of opposition in Azerbaijan, - look these and other events in the review of the week of April 11-17, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Human rights activists state systemic sabotage on the part of Chechen law enforcement bodies and inability of the Investigatory Committee to fulfil its immediate duties to investigate crimes in the republic, especially kidnappings. These are the topics of the ongoing press conference in Moscow.

The militants liquidated in a counterterrorist operation in Northern Caucasus had planned to make a film and publish a glossy magazine about terrorists' lifestyle. Also, layouts and maps, and various methodology-training literature on how to prepare terrorist acts were confiscated from them. This was reported by the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).

Azamat Sizhazhev, 26, one of those involved in the attack on Moscow tourists in Kabardino-Balkaria, was killed in the city of Baksan at rendering resistance. It was reported today by the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

As stated by Vassily Piskaryov, Deputy Head of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), at his meeting with Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the performers of the murders of Politkovskaya and Khlebnikov and their accomplices are still hiding abroad; however, the ICRF is doing everything it can to catch the criminals.

Last night unidentified people killed an ex-imam of a village mosque in Kizlyar district of Dagestan, Alkhas Amirkhnov, Senior assistant of Head of republican Investigative Department of Committee of Inquiry of the Russian Federation for media relations, reported.

On Monday, April, 18, a meeting of commemoration of Victor Popkov, peacemaker, journalist and human rights activist, was held in the Museum and Public Center named after Andrey Sakharov.

On April, 19, at 16:20, a young man's dead body was found not far from the stanitsa of Nesterovkaya, Sunzha district, at the border of Ingushetia with Chechnya, at the bed of the river of Assa. After the expertise he was identified as Ilez Gorchkhanov born in 1984 who according to his relatives was kidnapped on March, 21.

The court in Strasbourg imposed a compensation of 61 thousand euro on the authorities of Russia to pay off to the mother and wife of Khamzat Tushaev, resident of Chechnya who disappeared after being summoned for interrogation.

The death of a policeman, whose body was found today in an agricultural field in the Levokumsk District, Stavropol Territory, is being investigated.

The documentary "Barzakh" by the Lithuanian film director Mantas Kvedaravichyus picturing the facts of torture and abductions in Chechnya was presented at the festival of documentaries named Vision du Reel, held in the Swiss city of Nyon.

In the Marneuli district of Georgia, in the Kvemo Kartli region, a wall of an abandoned building collapsed, killed a child and injured another one.

On April 18, in Azerbaijan, 6 participants of the opposition protest rally on April 17 in Baku were sentenced to administrative arrest; 9 persons were fined, and 8 oppositionists were warned and released.

Several provisions of the law "On Assemblies and Manifestations" were found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Georgia. The lawsuit was initiated by four parties, the NGO "Youth organization of Georgian lawyers", local Ombudsman and several citizens of Georgia.

The jury of the Krasnodar Territorial Court has found the figurants of the criminal case on misappropriation of the rights of apartment residents of Sochi, two of whom were killed, guilty.