News

Employees of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" assert that FSB agents were extremely unwilling to contact human rights defenders during a special operation in Dagestan, where Makhmud Mansur, Abdurakhman Magomedov and their relatives were blocked in one of the houses in Makhachkala.

In the evening on May 18, in the village of Oktiabrskoe, Zernograd District of the Rostov Region, a dog bit a girl of two to death.

On May 21, the drivers of fixed-route taxis of Vladikavkaz plan to go on an endless strike in protest against the scheduled optimization of urban routes and increase of travel tariffs.

On May 18, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) addressed the Constitutional Court asking to annul the official results of the parliamentary elections held in Armenia on May 6.

As a result of a heavy rain, which fell in the evening on May 17 in the eastern part of Georgia, a bridge was destroyed, crops were damaged and ground floors of houses were flooded. Three thousand people have power outage. There are no casualties and victims.

On May 18, the Baku Court of Grave Crimes, chaired by Judge Ramella Allakhverdieva, began considering on the merits the criminal case against Avaz Zeinalov, the editor-in-chief of the "Khural" newspaper.

In the Sunzha District of Chechnya, under unascertained circumstances, Isa Magamaev, the 24-year-old resident of the village of Assinovskaya, disappeared. In the evening of May 12, the young man left to visit his relatives, residing in the Cossack village of Sleptsovskaya of the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, and he never returned home. Police joined search of disappeared man.

On May 17, the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia granted the lawsuit filed by Djambulat Ozdoev, the Republic's Ombudsman, connected with defence of social rights of repressed persons and persons recognized affected by political repressions.

Relatives of the supporters of Alla Djioeva, ex-candidate for the position of the President of South Ossetia, convicted in North Ossetia, appealed to Leonid Tibilov, the President of the Republic, asking for help in their release.

At the attempt committed in the city of Neftekumsk on Arslan Rizvanov, the activist of Muslims of the Stavropol Territory got six gunshot wounds. This was reported by the Spokesman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in the Stavropol Territory. Arslan Rizvanov's health condition remains grave.

Power agents did not allow representatives of the Commission on adaptation of IAF members to the alleged militants blocked in Makhachkala. Negotiations of the members of the Commission with power agents did not succeed.

A solo picket, demanding dismissal of Anatoly Pakhomov, City Mayor, was held in front of the Sochi administration. According to Irina Brovkina, who held the picket, about 500 signatures of citizens for the dismissal of the Mayor were collected.

In the criminal case against Sharaputdin Dibirmagomedov, the resident of Dagestan, the indictment under eleven Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was approved. This was reported by the Prosecutor's Office of the republic.

Names of 70 journalists, killed during performing their professional duties in 2011, were memorized in the Journalism Museum in Washington. The list includes the names of Rafiq Tagi, the Azerbaijani journalist, and Khadjimurad Kamalov, the editor of the newspaper "Chernovik" (Draft) in Dagestan.

In Azerbaijan, number of hunger-strikers demanding to release from prison the oppositionists, recognized by the international human rights organization "Amnesty International" as "prisoner of conscience", increased from 12 to 19. Convicted oppositionists are on hunger strike at prisons, and their free supporters are also on hunger strike.

The Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) conducts investigation into the case of beating in Elista of a man detained by policemen. The 47-year-old resident of the capital of the republic died from injuries.

The Special Investigatory Service of Armenia conducts investigation at the complaint of journalist Ruben Grdzelyan about his beating by Movses Manrikyan, the prosecutor on supervision over the lawfulness of investigation in the Kotaik Region.

Protest action under the slogan "Down with Homophobia!", organized by the Georgian NGO "Identity", ended in the centre of Tbilisi by confrontation of the participants of the protest action with representatives of clergy and the public organization "Union of Orthodox Parents".

Police officers detained a contract soldier, suspected of involvement in murder of a Turkish man committed in Rostov-on-Don and motivated by ethnic hatred. This was reported by Stanislav Kovalyov, First Deputy Head of the Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) in Rostov Region.

In Armenia, the today's court session on the case of the death of contract officer Artak Nazaryan in summer of 2010, made a decision to postpone the process for May 22 because absence of witnesses. The victim party believes that witnesses are being pressured.