News

In Dagestan power agents detained brothers Ibragim and Salman Seferbekov on suspicion of murdering on July 9 the principal of the school in Sovietskoe village. In the houses of the suspected explosives and ammunition were found, which, according to the brothers' relatives, had been "planted".

The Soviet District Court of the Stavropol Territory passed a sentence upon three brothers named Gafurov, who were figuring in the case on engagement in a conflict with Cossacks in the city of Zelenokumsk in November 2010. Two brothers were sentenced to imprisonment terms, and the third one was acquitted.

During the first six months of this year in Chechnya 30 members of the armed underground were killed, 79 militants and their accomplices were detained, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports.

The independent TV Company "GALA", which broadcasts from the city of Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia, will not fulfil the decision of the Court of Cassation to dismantle the equipment from the TV tower, until the company gets a possibility to operate from another TV tower, said Vaan Khachatryan, the owner of the TV Company.

On July, 19, hearings on the case of six activists of the opposition accused of violation of public order during an unauthorized meeting of Civil Movement for Democracy “Public Chamber” (CMDPC) on April, 2, in the center of Azerbaijani capital started in Sabaiil court of Baku.

On July, 20, former street traders held a new action of protest in the capital of Armenia, near the Mayor’s office. They state that after prohibition of street trading it has become difficult to support their families because of outrageous prices on the city market tolls. The traders are going to hold a series of hunger strikes near governmental buildings of Yerevan.

During the last several days a growth of the number of recourses of the citizens to medical institutions was registered in Chechnya. Physicians explain it by the heat that established in the republic. Republican Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that a heat of 40 degrees is expected in the nearest three days in the territory of Chechnya which may result is extraordinary accidents.

Today, the Sumgait Court of Appeal, chaired by Judge Lyatifa Mamedova, has continued considering the complaint of Jabbar Savalan, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA).

In Kabardino-Balkaria, investigators have presented charges to three villagers of Nartan, Chegem District, suspected of raping an underage girl.

An original protest action against corruption in Azerbaijan was held today by local civil society activists in Baku in front of the office of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD). They sent balloons into the sky with quotations from the speeches of President Ilham Aliev on combating corruption.

Today, under chairmanship of Rizvan Kurbanov, Deputy Prime Minister, a sitting of the commission for adaptation of members of the armed underground of Dagestan took place, where it was decided to ask investigators not to put Seidula Kazanalipov, a surrendered resident of the Botlikh District, behind bars.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has satisfied the lawsuit filed by Kameta Khashueva, the mother of Mamed Bagalaev, who was accidentally killed during a special operation of Russian power agents and ordered Russia to pay 45,000 euros to her.

The second quarter of 2011, as compared with the first one, saw an increase in the number of cases of pressure on journalists in Armenia. This was reported today at a press conference by Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech. According to his story, while during the first three months there were no incidents of violence against journalists, there were already two such cases in the second quarter of 2011.

On July 18, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov was interrogated as a witness at the trial of the 21-year-old alleged member of the armed underground, who last year surrendered in response to Evkurov's persuasion.

Chechnya introduces a ban on sale of energy drinks to minors. Recently, such drinks became very popular among Chechen young people; however, doctors believe that excessive use of these drinks can seriously deteriorate one's health.

Relatives of the young men who went a couple of weeks ago to join militants, whose houses, according to residents of the Shali District, were burned down, signed a non-disclosure commitment about what happened. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by a close relative of one of the suffered families.

A major in Stavropol region who was displeased with the fact that a soldier did not fulfill his order to clean up the territory of the military unit took away his tommy gun and struck him with the buttstock in his head, a source in the investigative bodies reported. After that the soldier jumped down from the fifth floor of the barracks.

A special beach for physically challenged people was opened in Novorossiisk. However, according to the disabled visitors themselves, the new social object needs improvement.

The court selected a preventive punishment for residents of the republics of Northern Caucasus detained for suspicion of preparation a mass act of terror in Moscow in form of arrest till September, 6.

International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" in Yerevan saw a record number of applications; two years after the murder of Chechen human rights defender Natalia Estemirova her colleagues present results of their own inquiry; Victor Dvorakovskiy, "Russian Wahhabi" suspected of preparing terrorist attack arrest in the Stavropol region, – look these and other events in the review of the week of July 11-17, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".