News

Preparation for local elections in Dagestan, appointed on October 11, is accompanied by administrative pressure and rough violations of the law. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Eduard Khidirov, deputy of the People's Assembly of Dagestan and head of the regional branch of the Party "Patriots of Russia".

The family of Anna Politkovskaya, who perished three years ago, is gradually losing hope that the whole chain of criminals involved in the journalist's murder will ever be revealed and the culprits will ever be punished. This was stated by Vera Politkovskaya, Anna's daughter. In her opinion, "the political will of country leaders can be the key factor in this context."

Currently, Moscow hosts the first Russian-South-Ossetian of the public and political organizations, which brought together over 200 representatives of different organizations from South Ossetia; many of them came to Moscow intentionally to take part in the forum.

On October 8, Tigran Arakelyan, a young activist of the Armenian opposition, accused of applying violence to policeman, was released from custody under recognizance not to leave.

Today in the afternoon, activists of the opposition party "Musavat" were subjected to physical pressure in the city of Barda, 300 kilometres off the capital of Azerbaijan. The MP Ikram Israfil, Arif Gadjily, head of the central office and electoral headquarters of the "Musavat", and journalist Mustafa Gadjibeili came there to meet local party activists in connection with preparation for municipal elections.

The recent anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya, who had in due time written a lot about violations of human rights in Chechnya, remained unmarked by local NGOs. The authorities of the republic organized grandiose horse races on that very day, on October 7, in the honour of the 57th birthday of the chairman of Russian government Vladimir Putin.

The Dorogomilovo District Court of Moscow has passed its decision on the case of "Black Hawks". The figurants in the case, accused of attacking two students in Moscow, were found guilty of nationalism-instigated hooliganism. Arutyunov was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment, Guseinov - to 6 years, and Mamedov - to 5 years. The remaining three defendants were sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment each with serving their terms in a minimum security colony.

Anastasia Denisova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in the Krasnodar Territory, president of the Krasnodar territorial public organization Youth Group for Tolerance "ETnIKA" and a member of Youth Human Rights Movement, complains of breaching her right to the freedom of travel and pressure in the context of her public work in the Krasnodar Territory and elsewhere in Russia.

The Tbilisi City Court has finished interrogating the defendants, figuring in the case about the Mukhrovani mutiny. 20 defendants have refused to plead guilty and evidence to the court. 13 persons, including Giya Gvaladze, on whose evidences General Koba Kobaladze was arrested, concluded remedial agreement with the prosecutor's and were sentenced to 2 years of prison each.

On October 7, the Nasimin District Court of Baku, chaired by Elmar Kerimov, finished the trial on the claim of Mais Mansimov, president of the football club "Khazar Lenkoran", against the reporter of the website www.fanat.az Natik Mukhtarly and the head of this electronic edition Zakhir Azamat. The defendants were sentenced to corrective works.

The Neftchalinsk police would not allow Ragim Gaziev, ex-minister of defence of Azerbaijan and former political prisoner, to visit the district and run his business there. The police also exert pressure on the local residents hired by the ex-minister for agricultural works. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Gaziev himself at the press conference in Baku on October 7.

The polling "Who deserves to become Ombudsman in Ingushetia?" held by the "Caucasian Knot" has aroused considerable interest among the readers. Recently, a splash in voting mainly for two candidates is observed.

The presidium of the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has cancelled the ruling of the magistrate court and appeal judgement of the Nalchik City Court on the claim lodged by employees of the patrol-sentry militia regiment (PSMR) against the KBR's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) on collection of their overdue salary for their overtime work and other mandatory payments stipulated by Russian legislation, and sent the case to the Nalchik City Court for a new consideration.

Today, the Sabail District Court of the capital of Azerbaijan continued, under presidency of Judge Araz Guseinov, the judicial hearings on the case of young bloggers Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli, accused of hooliganism and inflicting physical injuries. By the decision of the court they were left in custody.

On October 6, the Federal Court of the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala started considering the suit lodged by Kadi Aidemirov, acting head of the Khasavyurt Investigatory Committee, about solidary collection from the Dagestan weekly "Novoye Delo" and advocate Sapiyat Magomedova of 100,000 roubles as moral harm compensation. The session was chaired by Federal Judge Shamil Gasanov.

The Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee of Russia for Dagestan has found it necessary to hold an additional check of the data specified in the leaflets, which were disseminated in early September in Makhachkala. This was stated on Tuesday, October 6 by a source in the Republic's Investigatory Department.

In Moscow, people came to No. 8 Lesnaya Street, where Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", lived and was assassinated, to commemorate the journalist.

The issue of resuming the work of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in the Chechen Republic is still open. Local observers believe that in a view of the continuing litigation between the leader of the "Memorial" and Ramzan Kadyrov and negative attitude to this organization by "official" Chechen human rights activists and power agents, the decision can be indefinitely postponed.

Sergey Shamba, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Abkhazia, told journalists today that last week the top managers of Radio Liberty submitted an official letter to the MFA with an offer to open its representative office in Abkhazia.

The Strasbourg Court on Human Rights has communicated the complaint lodged by Kameta Khashueva, a resident of Chechnya and mother of Mamed Bagalaev, who occasionally perished in the course of special operation of Russian power agents, and awarded a priority status to her complaint.