News

Russian human rights activists Liudmila Alekseeva, Sergey Kovalyov and Oleg Orlov, representing the Human Rights Society "Memorial", were awarded by the European Parliament the prize named after Andrei Sakharov for the "freedom of thought". This news was announced by Jerzy Buzek, Chairman of the European Parliament, at today's session in Strasbourg.

The result of today's session on the claim lodged by Sergey Novikov, director of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise "Information-Analytical Centre" (MUE "IAC"), against the Novorossisk Committee on Human Rights (NCHR) on defence of his honour, dignity and business reputation was refusal of the court to consider the case because of clarification of circumstances and Mr Novikov's confession about his deal with the local prosecutor's office. This was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the NCHR.

Today in North Ossetia, local MPs have passed a bill "On Measures to Protect Children's Morals and Health", which in fact introduces a "curfew" for children and teenagers of this republic.

Four militants-suicide bombers who "planned to commit a series of terror acts by blowing themselves up" were killed today during a special operation in the Oktiabrskiy District of Grozny, as reported by President Ramzan Kadyrov. His Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports that one militiaman was lost.

The situation with the freedom of mass media in Georgia has improved; and in the rating of the international NGO "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) the country "has stepped up" by 39 positions and now takes the 81st place.

Experts of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) of Russia who came in mid-September to Chechnya for demining local farmland have cleared over 35 hectares of arable area.

Today, at the litigation on the case of Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the daily oppositional newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak" (Armenian Time), Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan, who is chairing the trial, rejected the petition of the defence challenging the public prosecutor Koryun Piloyan.

Tomorrow, on October 22, the Oktiabrskiy Court of Novorossisk will consider the claim of Sergey Novikov, Director of Municipal Unitary Enterprise "Information-Analytical Centre" (MUE "IAC") against the Novorossisk Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) on defence of his honour, dignity and business reputation. This was reported by Vadim Karastelyov, expert of the NCHR.

Seifula Isaev, senior inspector of special battalion of the Road Sentry Service (STSI), has faced charges of murdering Gamzat Musaev, senior inspector of the Khasavyurt Inter-District Investigatory Division of the Investigatory Department for Dagestan of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee of the Prosecutor's Office) of the Russian Federation, and of exceeding his service duties.

The Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe opens its new project. From November 2 on, every evening frequencies 9525 and 9780 will broadcast an information-analytical programme in the Russian language "Echo of the Caucasus". It is a new Russian-language analytical programme aimed at the audience in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Oppositional activists of Ingushetia are not going to address law enforcement bodies in the context of the yesterday's powerful attack on their website, as a result of which its work was completely paralyzed. In the opinion of Lydia Mikhalchenko, editor of the website "Ingushetiyaru.org", there is no sense to address them.

The city bosses prohibited all the events applied for by activists to mark the International Black Sea Day, and did it with violation of the procedure prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation for official answers. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the Novorossisk Committee for Human Rights (NCHR).

Today, activists of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus have lodged their complaint to the District Court of Adler challenging the administrative sanctions imposed on them. The ecologists protest against the decision made frontier guards of the FSB, who had detained the "greens" allegedly for breaking the frontier regime.

Today, in the village of Dvani, Kartli District of Georgia, Alexander Makhachashvili, 13, found a grenade in the cemetery and decided to bring it home; however, the weapon blew up and wounded him.

On October 20, the international organization in defence of journalists "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) has published its annual rating list on the freedom of press in the world. The report entitled "Global Freedom of Press Index--2009" rank Azerbaijan in the 146th place among 169 countries.

On October 16, broad-scale operative-preventive actions started in the territory of Chechnya aimed at revealing hijacked cars and those with excessively tinted glasses within the campaign named "Automobile".

The organization "Reporters without Borders" has presented its next regular report with assessment of the freedom of speech in 175 countries of the world. By the "freedom of speech index" Armenia was put in the 111th place.

The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has conducted a check on the fact of detection of a body of a convict with traces of murder in the territory of the colony-settlement (UKP) of the Corrective Establishment No. 2 of the Russian Correction Service (known as "UFSIN") for Chechnya, located in the city of Argun.

Three residents of Kabardino-Balkaria - Timur Begidov, born in 1975 in Kenzhe village, and Ibragim Shogenov and Anzor Nagoev from the village of Dugulubgei, who left on October 2 to the city of Ufa in a refrigerator truck with a cargo of fruits for sale, have disappeared. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it at the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre, where Timur Begidov's parents addressed for help.

In the evening on October 19, in Plievo village, a local resident Azhigov by name was shot dead in his car.