News

Within the section "Role of regional systems of human rights defence in strengthening national justice systems" of the 37th Congress of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), which is now on in Yerevan, human rights activists from the "Memorial" shared their practical experience of defending human rights in Chechnya.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has passed a decision on the complaint "Abaeva et al versus Russia", having ruled that Russian government should pay compensation of moral damage of 60,000 euros to relatives of the kidnapped citizens of Chechnya Magomed-Ali Abaev and Anvar Shaipov.

Today, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of ex-president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was found guilty of illegal keeping of firearms and a murder attempt.

Leval Gachechiladze, leader of the oppositional public movement "Defend Georgia", prepares an action against President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili in the context of the scandalous TV programme "Chronicle" broadcast by the "Imedi" TV Company. The report showed a simulated invasion of Russian troops and assassination of the President.

On April 6 inspectors found the body of one of the children who disappeared in March. The search of the two remaining ones continues with the help of a drone.

Anastasia Denisova, a human rights defender from Krasnodar and head of public organization "ETnIKA", whose criminal case was delivered from the court to the prosecutor's office for elimination of drawbacks, believes that the organizers of her criminal and judicial prosecution have hit their true target - deprived her of opportunities to work properly.

The Georgia's Ministry on Refugees' Matters and Accommodation has granted the refugee status to warrant officer Vitaly Khripun, a Russian frontier guard, who on December 21, 2009, deserted from his military unit deployed in Sinagur village in South Ossetia.

The Moscow City Court has rejected the advocate's cassation complaint and upheld the arrest of Timur Kartoev, a defendant in the case dealing with the blowing up of the "Neva-Express" train in November 2009. Kartoev was behind bars on March 4 by the Basmanny Court of Moscow.

Two natives of Dagestan, aged 27, are suspected of sending out false messages from a mobile phone about a prepared explosion of a school in the south of Moscow.

On April 7, the Supreme Court (SC) of Azerbaijan, chaired by Ali Seifaliev, considered the cassation complaint lodged by Sayara Geidarova, who was earlier found guilty of beating four men. The supreme judicial instance of the country upheld the verdict of guilty.

Today, medical establishments of Moscow are still treating 75 victims of the explosions triggered in Moscow metro stations on March 29.

After the terror acts in Moscow and Kizlyar, the State Duma of the Russian Federation started development of the bill, which assumes compensation of damage to terror act victims, and found it necessary to properly organize the coverage by mass media of emergencies in Russia.

The ladies-journalists from the Buryatia-based newspaper "Svobodnoye Slovo" (Free Word), accused of kindling enmity to Russian power agencies in their materials about the 1944 deportation of Caucasian nations, sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

At the Park Kultury station of Moscow metro, the information terminal in the centre of the vestibule became a sort of a monument, at the bottom of which we can see a heap of flowers, candles and photos of those whose lives stopped here, in a fatal trip on March 29. In the Lubyanka station, for several days in a row fresh flowers make a broad semicircle successively lay. Many people go in metro cars towards the places of the tragedy holding two or four roses or carnations in their hands.

Terror acts of suicide-bombers in Moscow and Northern Caucasus cause tough reaction of the Kremlin and give rise to fears of Caucasian phobia outbreak; Mayor of capital of Kalmykia convicted conditionally, another person takes his place; court session on attack on Nalchik disrupted; Georgia releases several detainees, and South Ossetia agrees to Geneva discussions, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of March 29-April 4, 2010, in Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

On April 5, the Nasimin District Court of Baku refused to satisfy the claim lodged by Elmin Badalov, dismissed from his 4th year at the Azerbaijani State Oil Academy (ASOA), against the Academy bosses.

Grigory Martynov also told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the recent operation of the FSB in Zalesovo village of the Altai Territory.

On April 5, the Sovietskiy District Court of Krasnodar sentenced Vladislav Gmyrya and Pavel Vetrov, the organizer and one of the members of the extremist group named "Pit Bull" to 6 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony.

Two girls-believers were detained in the course of their religious service in the city of Novoanninskiy, Volgograd Region, and brought to the local OVD (Interior Division), where their personal things were confiscated; then, searches began in Jehovah's Witnesses' apartments with confiscation of property and money - searches were conducted without witnesses and protocols. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Grigory Martynov, representative of the press service of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.

After the terror acts in Moscow metro on March 29, the Russian society started discussing the idea of punishing terrorists' parents. Supporters of this idea believe that the family shall be responsible for the acts of its member, while opponents are sure that innocent persons shall not be punished.