News

Most of the complaints addressed to the Ombudspersons working in the regions of Northern Caucasus deal with violations of citizens' rights by law enforcement bodies, Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Russian President for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), said at his meeting with the Ombudspersons, who work in the NCFD.

Late in the evening on November 11, two activists of the "Left-Wing Front" were detained on charges of hooliganism.

In the evening on November 11, in the village of Yanikoy, Chegem District of Kabardino-Balkaria, entrepreneur Akhmad Gegraev was killed.

After the searches conducted at the Geneva-based offices of the companies belonging to the Chechen businessman Bulat Chagaev and in the office of the Football Club "Xamax", purchased by him in May this year, police inspectors also searched his house.

In the course of a special operation conducted in the Shali District of Chechnya, law enforcers killed Rukman Ediev, which, according to the local MIA, was an active member of the armed underground in the republic.

Pickets with demand to revise the existing tariffs on utilities will be held in Rostov-on-Don near the city administration by residents of the city of Zverevo.

In Azerbaijan, the organizers of the campaign "Song for Democracy" have sent an appeal to Catherine Ashton, High EU Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, who plans to visit Baku next week.

The players of the Lithuanian national football team have disregarded the recommendations of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and flew to the capital of Chechnya in the same charter flight with their upcoming opponents – the second national Russian team. However, not a single fan of the Lithuanian team has come to Grozny.

Adam Gadagatl, the former head of the operative division of the UFSIN (Department of the Russian Federal Correction Service) for Adygea, was found guilty of an especially large embezzlement committed by an organized group of persons through the use of one's office position, the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the republic reports.

In the murder case of the 19 year-old girl in Karachay-Cherkessia, her two elder brothers were found guilty; they were sentenced to 13 and 9 years of imprisonment in a high security colony, the Republic's Supreme Court has reported.

On November 10, Roland Kelekhsaev, the unregistered South-Ossetian presidential candidate and the leader of the oppositional "People's Party", submitted an application to the Prosecutor's Office about his beating.

Ruslan Akharashev, a resident of Chechnya, will be tried on charges of abducting back in 1997, the sister of the former head of the republic Doku Zavgaev.

The Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is staying for two weeks in Chechnya at the invitation of Ramzan Kadyrov, said on air of Chechen television that the head of Chechnya had agreed to hold his fight with Somluck Kamsing, the 1996 Olympic boxing champion, in Grozny.

Employees of the Department of Constitutional Safety of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have detained Igor Tkebuchava, the head of the Khobi district administration, on charges of bribery, the MIA has announced today.

The Kirov District Court of Astrakhan has restored Nadezhda Gogoleva, Director of School No. 74 and a member of the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) with a decisive vote from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia), in her position. Her employers could not cite any reason at the trial, why the woman had been fired.

In Baku, a gas explosion took place in a school; one pupil suffered burns.

The investigatory division for the city of Nalchik is conducting a pre-investigation check of the fact of poisoning of 48 students and teachers of the Kabardino-Balkar State Agricultural Academy (KBSACA). A service check will be also held with respect to the doctors of the Urvan District Hospital, where a poisoned girl had died.

Armen Martirosyan, a resident of the city of Gadruta, was killed in an explosion in the boiler house; another victim was hospitalized.

Georgia has finalized the annual festival of avant-garde art "Artisterium", which was attended by 74 artists from around the world.

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), chaired by Judge Fakhraddin Mamedov, dismissed the appeal complaint lodged by Khyakimeldost Mekhtiev, a regional correspondent of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS).