News

A former power agent of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has been sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping in 1998 of a resident of the Gudermes District. The convict appealed against the verdict, but the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld it.

As stated by Ambassador Fernando Valenzuela, head of the EU Delegation in Russia, during a visit to Ingushetia, the European Union (EU) is phasing out its humanitarian programmes in Northern Caucasus in connection with improved situation in the region.

The protest action, held by Azerbaijani immigrants in The Hague, against suppression of democratic freedoms in Azerbaijan was attended by members of the Dutch Parliament Van Bommel and Hachichi, activists of youth organizations of the Netherlands and Turkish Diaspora.

Victor Dvorakovskiy, 23, a resident of Makhachkala, whom special agencies believe to be an accomplice of the Russian Wahhabite Vitaly Razdobudsko, suspected of involvement in organizing terror acts in Dagestani Gubden, is going to undermine one of the three Moscow railway stations - the Kazan, Yaroslavl or Leningrad one. This was reported by law enforcement bodies of Moscow.

On April 6, Vakha Chapanov, head of the information-analytical Agency named "Maximum", was repeatedly summoned to the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia, where he was warned about the inadmissibility of publishing material critical of power agents. The journalist believes that this is the first step of law enforcers towards closing his agency.

On April 7 and 8, the Nizami District Court of the city of Gandzha held preparatory sessions to the trial of the youth activist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, accused of evading army service. Judge Amin Akhundov satisfied only one of the many motions of the defence and released Gadjiev from the cage for the hearings. Gadjiev's advocate Alaif Gasanov claims gross violations of the law.

A meeting of the head of the republic Magomedsalam Magomedov with a delegation of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", headed by Oleg Orlov, took place in Makhachkala. In the course of the conversation, the parties touched on the problem of kidnappings and defence of human rights and freedoms.

As devised by the organizers, the next protest action, which should become the final attempt to seek dialogue with the authorities, will be held by the Armenian opposition on April 28. This was announced today at a rally by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, former President and the leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC).

The two residents of Abkhazia killed today in a skirmish have been identified as Vasha Sechinava and Malkhaz Kharchilava. According to the Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB), they are diversionists from Georgia.

New rules of marriage registration enacted by the clergy in Chechnya according to which young people intending to create a family are obliged to undergo medical examination for AIDS have helped detecting four cases of this disease.

Over two thousand cases of kidnapping which took place in Northern Caucasus during the recent years remain unsolved and that is half of all the crimes of this category in the whole Russia.

DNA testing of the remains of the gunmen killed during the special operation in Sunzha district of Ingushetia on March, 28, among whom there supposedly might have been leader of Chechen gunmen Dokku Umarov has provided no corroboration of his death, a source in one of the Russian security services reported.

On April 6, the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia sent a letter to law enforcement bodies of Malaysia on the case of the Georgian citizens - Babutsa Gordadze and Daredzhan Kokhtashvili - accused in this country of drug trafficking, asking them to change their penalty to long-term imprisonment instead of death penalty.

In the course of operative-search activities in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, law enforcers blew them up on a mine-trap, said a source from law enforcement bodies. There are wounded and contused persons among the victims.

In Moscow, at the Schukinskaya metro station, Larissa Abdulaeva, a resident of Dagestan, was detained. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the police department of the Schukinskaya station that passengers of the metro train called the police and said that they saw a suspicious woman in their train.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has decided to consider the case of the opposition activist of Armenia and well-known journalist Nikol Pashinyan in accelerated manner. This was reported by Vage Grigoryan, one of Pashinyan's advocates.

In the Jalilabad District of Azerbaijan, located at 220 km to the south of Baku, the 15-year-old son of Tazakhan Miralamli, head of the local branch of the oppositional Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) has been charged under Article 120 of the Criminal Code (wilful murder). Relatives of the perished boy blame doctors for his death. The oppositionist himself is still in hospital in Baku.

Today, the Moscow City Court has continued considering the criminal case on the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov. The defence of the accused Tikhonov and Khasis has presented to the court the witness Olga Mukhachova, who confirmed that at the moment of the murder Evgenia Khasis was with Alexei Baranovskiy.

The Nikulin Court of Moscow has arrested Magomed Aliev, who was detained on April 6 in the west of Moscow with a self-made explosive device.

The court of general jurisdiction of the communities Centre and Nork-Marash has imposed arrest on the property of the newspaper "Erkir" in performance of the suit filed by Deputy Tigran Arzakantsyan on insult and slander. The newspaper received the notification today by mail.