News

Ani Gevorkyan, a journalist of the oppositional newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak" (Armenian Time), who was kept in custody since June 1 was released under recognizance not to leave. This was reported by her advocate Lusine Saakyan.

According to the family of Marat Gadzhimuratovich Satabalov who died on 6 May 2010, Marat was beating to death in the Kazbekovsky district interior division by its officers. The beating could have dealt with interconfessional differences, the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" informs.

Attorneys of Rasil Mamedrizaev who was sentenced today for the murder of the leader of the Dagestan branch of the "Yabloko" Party Farid Babaev have not decided yet whether to appeal against judgment of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, said advocate Suleiman Azuev.

The independent human right organization "Amnesty International" held on 3 June a picket outside the Azerbaijani embassy in Moscow. Picketers demanded the release of a jailed Azeri journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.

In 2009, special agencies detained a man, who was preparing 12 terror acts in Moscow. This was stated today by Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) at a press conference.

On June 1, 2010 in the centre of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, in the Journalists Mini-Park, women, whose relatives disappeared in 2000-2010, held a picket. Their action was dated to the International Children's Day. Over 50 women held photos of their sons, brothers and fathers. The regional organization named "Parents' Alarm" was the organizer of the action.

Aslan Patiev, a student of a higher school in Stavropol, is suspected of participation in the explosion in Stavropol. This was reported by his mother Khadizhat Patieva, a resident of the city of Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, who told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the circumstances of her son's detention. The woman asserts that he was called by a telephone call to Bekkhan Atigov, head of the republic's Security Council.

It became known today that the FSB agents killed on June 1 in the course of a special operation in Dagestan were engaged in searching people involved in the terror acts committed on March 29 in Moscow metro. This was reported by Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, today at a press conference.

On June 2, the Garadag District Court of Baku chaired by Ismail Khalilov continued the litigation on the new case of the earlier convicted journalist Einullah Fatullaev, this time accused of illegal drug storage.

Aage Borchgrevinkg, an adviser of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, was monitoring the local government elections in the Samtskhe-Dzhavakheti region of Georgia. According to his story, plenty of violations were registered at polling stations.

Today in Armenia, the police have again hampered young members of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) to hold their sit-in protest action by not admitting them to the Freedom Square.

In the village of Gubden in the Karabudahkentsky district of Dagestan, early in this morning the forestry employee's son was shot. And the forester himself was also killed by unknown persons a year ago. "The young man was shot by unidentified people near his house. Last year, the insurgents killed his father", a press service representative of the Dagestan interior ministry told a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" about the incident in the village of Gubden.

Russia's FSB border service administration in Republic of Abkhazia has called provocative the statements made by the Georgian side on involvement of Russian military in the incident, which killed one officer of Abkhaz customs and injured another two.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov denies his involvement in abductions and murder occurring in the republic and declares that "the only enemies he recognizes and intends to 'annihilate' are the enemies of Islam, to whom he refers the Wahhabi insurgents who are hiding in forests. Also, Kadyrov is convinced that Sharia is above the laws of the Russian Federation.

This night, a liquor store in Khasavyurt (Dagestan) was taken under fire. The sales assistant got injured.

On 8 April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) passed a judgment on the case "Mrs.Abdurashidova against Russia", having acknowledged that the Russian Federation was responsible for the numerous violations of the applicant's rights. This is the first suit gained in the ECHR by the resident of Dagestan", the Human Right Center "Memorial" informed today.

Today, in Georgia, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) named "The Human Rights Centre" held a press conference, where it has presented its post-election report "General violations and disputable actions detected by observers on May 30, 2010, in Svanetia and Kakhetia".

Kindergartens reduction in Georgia contributes to the spread of diseases among children and the preschool education degradation. This was the key note of the action organized by the Educators and Scientists Trade Union of Georgia.

Law enforcement bodies of Chechnya try to identify the young man, who was killed yesterday, on May 31, in the Oktiabrskiy District of Grozny and who, as power agents believe, was going to commit a self-suicidal act of terrorism. The information about liquidation of the failed suicide-bomber gives rise to doubts among local human rights activists.

The Monument to the people killed in the Beslan terrorist attack in 2004 was unveiled today in the downtown of Moscow. The monument was designed by the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli. His project was selected from more than ten anonymous proposals.