News

Because of his health aggravation, Suren Surenyants, member of the Political Board of the "Republic" Party, has stopped his hunger strike in Armenia.

The Commission of European Communities (CEC) has approved granting humanitarian aid in the sum of 11 million euros to the victims of the armed conflict in Chechnya.

Today, the Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia has closed the criminal case against Ella Kesaeva, leader of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan", accused under four Articles of the Russian Criminal Code. Respondent Marina Melikova has cried quits.

Today is the 13th day of the hunger strike continued by a group of journalists and public figures of the country who demand release of convicted journalists and political prisoners.

Law enforcement bodies of Krasnodar Territory can benefit from the fact that Gipsies are ignorant of their rights and freedom. This concern was expressed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Timur Khalilov, deputy chairman of the Krasnodar City Gipsies' National-Cultural Autonomy.

Today, President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev, speaking to a specially convoked press conference, has categorically refuted the information that he had given instructions to ban the second performance of the play "All in Your Hands", staged on the motives of the tragic events that took place in the Dubrovka Theatrical Centre in Moscow.

The delegation of the European Committee against Torture (ECT) has finished their working visit to Northern Caucasus, which took place from March 27 to April 3.

Today in Frankfurt am Main a picket was held with a demand to Spanish authorities not to deport to Russia Murad Gasaev, a refugee from Ingushetia, who is suspected by Russian law enforcement bodies of taking part in the activities of armed underground in Northern Caucasus.

From now on, the Anti-Discrimination Centre "Memorial" starts to hold actions dated to the International Day of Gipsies marked annually on April 8.

Today, representatives of the Armenian Diaspora who live in Holland, France and Belgium will hold a protest action near the buildings of the European Union and European Commission in Brussels. The participants of the action plan to express their protest against the post-election events in Armenia.

In Dagestan, Sergey Rasulov, chief editor of the "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time) newspaper, was dismissed for breaking labour discipline. The journalist was preparing materials for publication, devoted to violations of the freedom of speech by the founders of the edition.

Aslambek Apaev, Chairman of the Committee for Defence of Forced Migrants' Rights and an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group for Northern Caucasus, has addressed the president-elect Dmitri Medvedev and heads of Russia's power agencies with an appeal to protect him and members of his organization from prosecution by power agents.

Human rights activists ask Spain "not to deprive Gasaev of the last shelter." This is the topic of the joint statement of human rights organizations "ChCNS", "MAShR" and the Committee for Forced Migrants' Matters on the case of Murad Gasaev.

Kakha Kukava, one of the leaders of the Conservative Party of Georgia, has declared that the delay to award MAP to Georgia was not a surprise for their Party.

Today, Sozar Subari, Ombudsman of Georgia, has acquainted the audience at the press conference held at the Ombudsman's office with video evidences of the falsifications that took place during the recent presidential election on January 5.

The Volgograd Regional Court is permanently postponing the consideration of the criminal case on the murder of two persons and inflicting heavy bodily injuries to others during a skinheads' attack on April 14, 2006, on the Gipsy camp, located in those days in the vicinity of the city of Volzhskiy, Volgograd Region.

In the evening on April 3, the Nazran District Court of Ingushetia decided that the Chechen Committee for National Salvation had really obstructed to the audit of its activities undertaken by the Department of the Federal Registration service for the Republic of Ingushetia.

The Pravoberezhny District Court of North Ossetia has stopped the cases on administrative offences against the members of the All-Russian NGO "Voice of Beslan" Emiliya Bzarova and Svetlana Margieva, as Ella Kesaeva, co-chair of the organization, has informed today.

On April 2, the Russian State Duma refused again to amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as the National Assembly of Ingushetia offered back in 2005, and introduce punishments in the form of imprisonment for kidnappers of brides.

The number of hunger-strikers in Azerbaijan goes up: today, five new participants have joined the protest action.