News

The verdict of the Moscow Regional Court to Khavazhi Yusupov, a native of Chechnya, which sentenced him to 8.5 years of imprisonment for his attempt on businessman Isa Yamadaev - a brother of earlier assassinated ex-deputy of the Russian State Duma Ruslan Yamadaev and ex-commander of the "Vostok" battalion "East" Sulim Yamadaev, has been appealed against at the Supreme Court of Russia.

On June 23, a churchman from Georgia addressed the authorities of South Ossetia with a request of political shelter.

The today's session at the trial on the attack on power agencies of Nalchik on October 13, 2005, started with an incident: lawyer Zalim Dzagashtov refused to present his bag for inspection at the entrance to the courtroom, left it at the securities, entered the room without documents and made a declaration about his impossibility to defend his clients.

Tigran Balayan, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, has refuted the information disseminated by the Forum of the Armenian Societies of Europe (FASE), about an agreement reached between the USA and Russia about launching of a short-term war in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the aim to deploy Russian peacemakers in Kelbadzhar and American ones in Fizuli.

Vadim Gvindzhiya, head of the Gali ROVD (District Interior Division), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the charges of the Georgian party concerning the attack on the Andzhaparidze family in the village of Rep, Gali District of Abkhazia, are not legitimate.

Zurab Nogaideli, ex-prime minister of Georgia, now the leader of the oppositional political party "For Fair Georgia", accused today at a press conference the country leaders of mass "politically-motivated" lay-offs of teachers.

According to Alexander Lozychenko, deputy chair of the Gukov Territorial Committee of the Russian Independent Coal Industry Workers' Trade Union ("Rosugleprof"), most likely, the prosecutor's checks conducted in the mines in the Rostov Region will not result in any improvement of the situation. According to his story, the revealed violations are usual for the regional coal industry.

Andrei Babushkin, head of the Committee for Civil Rights and a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), said in the course of the roundtable on the medical aspect of torture applied in prisons and isolation facilities that his Committee receives many applications from North-Caucasian inmates complaining that their rights as prisoners are restrained, including on the basis of their religious affiliation.

The criminality in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) is under effect of the nationalist-extremist underground groupings, which use different methods but have one aim - destabilization of situation. This was stated today by Arthur Makhov, deputy public prosecutor of the republic at the sitting of the Public Chamber of the KBR.

As reported today by the press service of the Kremlin, based on the outcomes of the meeting with Chechen leadership on June 14, 2010, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has approved the list of his instructions (orders).

Lately, more than twenty applicants from Chechnya, whose cases were supported by the International Advocacy Support Centre, received compensations under decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This was reported on June 22 by the head of the Centre Karina Moskalenko. In her opinion, justice in Russia faces huge obstacles.

The case of Sapiyat Magomedova, who was beaten in Khasavyurt, is considered by the investigatory division on especially important cases of the Prosecutor's Office of Dagestan, which refuses to give any comments on the course of inquiry. According to the head of the Khasavyurt OVD (Interior Division) Shamil Temigereev, lawyer Magomedova attacked militiamen herself.

On June 22, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) found illegal the decision of the antiterrorist commission at the administration of the capital of the republic of December 24, 2009, to introduce a temporary ban on rallies, pickets and other mass political actions in the territory of the city of Nalchik.

The Moscow City Court (MCC) held a closed preliminary hearing on the case on murdering in September 2009 of the ex-deputy of the State Duma, Hero of Russia Ruslan Yamadaev.

A well-informed source in Chechnya told the "Caucasian Knot" that soon the recruiter of militants Alkhazur Bashaev, who was liquidated in November 2009, may be announced by the investigation to be the murderer of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Chechen branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", while the motive of her murder could possibly be found in the report of human rights activists, where Bashaev was mentioned. The employees of the HRC "Memorial" are afraid that this version may conceal real customers of the murder from responsibility.

In front of the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, a protest action is held by members of the Chechen Diaspora in France against illegal actions of power agents in Chechnya.

The case initiated on the death of Vaan Khalafyan, 24, has been transferred to the general jurisdiction court of the Kotaik Region. Four employees of the police saw their charges.

The claims like the one filed by President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov are not aimed at protecting one's good name, but attempt to restrict dissemination of information, as Svetlana Zemskova, a lawyer of the Fund in Defence of Glasnost, asserts.

In Azerbaijan, the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) has started a charitable campaign named "Marathon in support of 'prisoners of conscience'". The action is dated to the Day of National Press marked annually on July 22.

In central Sochi, nature defenders have again held a picket, asserting that many environmental problems of the resort have not been given due attention yet.