News

At night on August 3, a suicide was committed in the Baku pre-trial detention facility (known as "SIZO"). As reported by the Sabunchin District Prosecutor's Office of the city of Baku, Alim Ismajlov, 41, hung himself in the cell. The reason of his suicide is unknown yet. According to Elchin Bekhbudov, head of the Azerbaijani Committee Against Torture, it already the third suicide in Azerbaijan among persons kept in custody from the start of this year.

As reported by a source in the Ingush MIA, in a shelling in central Nazran Ibragim Evloev, 35, former deputy head of the State Security Centre of the MIA of Ingushetia, who was earlier convicted for an imprudent murder of Magomed Evloev, owner of the oppositionist website "Ingushetia.Ru".

In Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, correspondents of local newspapers will discuss legal aspects of their work in the course of the seminar organized by the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR).

Employees of the Azerbaijani Ombudsperson's office have confirmed information that certain persons in civilian clothes were abusing the oppositionists sentenced to administrative arrest for participation in the protest action in Baku on July 31.

Dokku Umarov, leader of Chechen militants, who had earlier appointed his successor - Aslambek Vadalov, - has now stated that he would not resign.

From the start of this year, the law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic have liquidated 51 militants; and 128 suspected members of the armed underground and their helpers were detained. These figures were announced on August 3 at the meeting in Grozny of President of Chechnya with the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the republic. Local observers believe that the figures presented by power agents can be overestimated.

Within the criminal case on the fact of death of Artak Nazaryan, a contract officer, initiated by the military prosecutor's office under Article 110 of the Criminal Code (incitement to suicide), four militaries have been detained: an officer and three regular soldiers.

Employees of law enforcement bodies render no pressure on Malika Evtemirova, a resident of Dagestan, and offer her a deal in exchange for cooperation with the investigation. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Evtemirova herself.

In Dagestan, activists of public organizations bag subscriptions under an open letter to President of the republic Magomedsalam Magomedov with a demand to investigate the crime committed on Makhmud Ahmedov, 14. They ask to stop militia's lawlessness and punish those guilty of beating the teenager.

Alexei Samkov, a resident of Vladikavkaz, born in 1988, sent a complaint to the Public Prosecutor of North Ossetia, asserting that he was beaten by militiamen.

Numerous cases of poisoning in the Bagaev District, Rostov Region, became known on August 2. On July 29 and 30, 15 persons were hospitalized there, including seven children and an 11-month-old baby.

Attacks on militiamen in Astrakhan; protests of Abkhazian refugees in Tbilisi; rallies in defence of the freedom of assembly in the cities of Russia's south, - look these and other events in the review of the week of July 26-August 1, 2010, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Dokku Umarov, who has announced his successor - Aslambek Vadalov - was dismissed from the command of the underground by his former companions-in-arms, said Ahmed Zakaev, former emissary of Chechen separatists, who is now hiding from Russian justice in London. Ruslan Martagov, a Chechen journalist and political scientist, agrees that Dokku Umarov has lost his reputation among the militants.

Aslambek Vadalov, appointed by Dokku Umarov to be his successor as the "Amir" of the "Imarat Kavkaz", created by Umarov, is one of the most impudent militants' field commanders and is guilty of murdering dozens of law enforcers, the Chechen MIA asserts. President of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov has stated that operations aimed to find and liquidate Umarov, Vadalov and other militants' leaders will be continued.

The reason of the death of Armenian soldiers on July 27 and 28 is in the fact that some people in the country's Armed Forces are not in their positions; and henceforth we should understand that the most important thing is the soldier's life. This was stated today to journalists by Greta Mirzoyan, a member of the public board at the Minister of Defence and chair of the public organization "Soldier's Mothers".

Moscow law enforcers are establishing instigators of the fight between natives of Dagestan and veterans-air troopers, which burst out yesterday, on August 2, in the Russian capital. Information on the incident is scanty; therefore, authors of Internet diaries express their opinions on the possible course of events; many of them condemn the troopers' tradition of celebrating the annual Troopers' Day by mass alcohol drinking.

As stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Fuad Gakhramanly, deputy chair of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the participants of the Saturday's action of the opposition, who had been sentenced to administrative arrest in Baku, are exposed to insults and pressure.

Tonight, the group of Balkars, which were holding their hunger strike at the building of the representative office of the NCFD (North-Caucasian Federal District) in the city of Essentuki for 25 days, stopped their action and returned to Nalchik.

The next regular issue of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" will be published in Azerbaijan on August 4. It became possible after negotiations of the paper's editorial board with the top management of the "Azerbaijan" Publishing House.

In Georgia, a working group will be set up to fight against the "hate speech". This was decided today during a joint working meeting of the public movement "Multinational Georgia" with the local NGOs.