News

On September 28, a meeting was held in the city of Essentuki of the members of the All-Russian NGO named "Voice of Beslan" Ella Kesaeva, Emiliya Betrozova and Svetlana Margieva with Nikolai Fedoryak, deputy plenipotentiary of Russian President in the South Federal District (SFD), with whom they discussed the issues of the investigation of the terror act, the law on the status of terror act victims and pension to victim.

The ICPO of Chechnya has initiated a criminal case against the unidentified persons, who placed on June 26 in the main page of the website "Chechnya Today" threats of murder addressed to the republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

On September 29, in Baku, a preparatory session was held on the suit lodged by the widow of the perished head of the Talush Cultural Centre and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh) Novruzali Mamedov against the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice, the Penitentiary Service and its medical establishment, and also against Colony No. 15. In its turn, the Nizami District Prosecutor's Office has found no grounds for opening a criminal case in relation to N. Mamedov's death in the colony.

Vardui Elbakyan, advocate of oppositional activist Tigran Arakelyan, 18, who is in custody, told journalists about extremely grave health condition of her client. According to her story, after examination by ophthalmologist a serious injury of his eye was revealed. The defender is sure that it was a result of the blow inflicted by a policeman on the young man with the pistol handle.

On September 29, all the defendants in the "Black Hawks" case - the Caucasians, accused of committing hooligan actions and causing grave harm to human health, - enjoyed their last plea right. Judge of the Dorogomilovo Court of Moscow retired to pass the verdict to be announced on October 8.

Forty best students of the Chechen State University (ChSU) and Grozny State Oil Institute (GSOI) have left for studying at higher schools of Germany. This is already the second group of the Chechen students, who will be trained abroad. Earlier, about a hundred of them went to Germany and Great Britain.

According to the Russian Ministry of Regional Development (know as "Minregion") for the four preparatory years to the Olympiad in Sochi, including this year, 1,054 trillion roubles will be needed. In the opinion of experts, this sum is strongly overestimated.

On October 11, Astrakhan will elect city Mayor. The incumbent Mayor Sergey Bozhenov has also nominated himself to the post. In the opinion of oppositional candidates, Bozhenov's supporters are pressing on them by involving criminals and corrupted militiamen. The Mayor's electoral office rejects the accusations, but the militia has initiated a check.

The work of the Chechen Department of the Federal State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (STSI) is arousing criticism by traffic actors. Drivers complain that frequently the highways of the republic are patrolled by absolutely professionally unprepared and incompetent STSI employees, who see their main task to get enriched at the account of traffic participants.

Within the murder case of the Hero of Russia Ruslan Yamadaev, the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) has interrogated Suleiman Geremeev, a cousin of Adam Delimkhanov, Deputy of the State Duma from Chechnya. As reported by an ICPO source, Geremeev was interrogated in Moscow as a witness.

Instigators of mass fight in the Altai Motorized Rifle Division, where recruits from Dagestan suffered, have received their prison terms.

A number of leading opposition parties of Georgia hold consultations aimed to coordinate future plans. In particular, they still demand resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili and early presidential election, as Kakha Kukava, one of the leaders of the Conservative Party, said in the press conference.

Today, the Sabail District Court of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, chaired by Judge Araz Guseinov, continued its hearings on the case of young bloggers - Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli, accused in hooliganism and inflicting bodily injuries. Witnesses went on evidencing.

Yesterday, on September 28, at the Dorogomilovo Court of Moscow, where the case of the "Black Hawks" is considered, the representative of the Prosecutor's Office asked the court to sentence the six defendants-natives of the Caucasus, accused of hooliganism and causing grave harm to human health, to prison terms from 4 to 7 years. This was reported by victims' advocate Sergey Stashevskiy.

The widow and son of Novruzali Mamedov, former head of the Talush Cultural Centre and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh), who died on August 17 in imprisonment, in the evening on September 26 received traumas after their car ran foul of a truck, which then disappeared from the venue. Earlier, relatives of the political prisoner had accused the authorities that Novruzali was killed in prison.

In the evening on July 28, unidentified persons opened fire from the direction of Ekazhevo village on the militia check post located in the village of Surkhakhi. There were no victims, but the building of the post was slightly damaged.

Later this week, on September 30, the Supreme Court of Dagestan plans to pass its verdict on the case of Mukhtar Agaev, officer of the Dagestan Department of the Federal Service of the Russian Federation on Drug Circulation, accused of forming an IAF and an attempt on Shamil Isaev, a deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan. The defendant will be given his last plea on September 29.

With advent of Ramzan Kadyrov to power in Chechnya, words of human rights activists, even void of criticism, are rejected. This was stated by Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee for Civil Assistance, speaking as witness on September 25 at the Tver Court of Moscow at the court session on Ramzan Kadyrov's claim against head of the HRC "Memorial" Oleg Orlov.

Progress in investigating the murder of ex-Deputy of Russian State Duma Ruslan Yamadaev; news events in litigation of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov against the head of the HRC "Memorial" Oleg Orlov; information leak from the Commission of the EU for investigating the circumstances of the August 2008 military conflict in the Caucasus and results of Georgia's negotiations with Abkhazian and South-Ossetian parties, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of September 21-27 in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The Russian authorities have failed to enforce the decisions of the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) on more than 30 cases of Chechnya residents, runs the report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) published on September 27.