News

A piquet "against violence, war actions and terrorism" in North Caucasus was held yesterday night, December 4, on Pushkin Square in the center of Moscow. It was organized near the huge New Year fir-tree installed in Novopushkin park and lasted for an hour and a half, from 17.30 to 19.00.

Yesterday, December 4, in its ruling on the complaints from Chechen residents, the European Court on Human Rights again declined the applicants' request to oblige Russian authorities to conduct new investigation on disappearances and death of their relatives and to hold the guilty persons responsible.

Human rights activists think that the genuine cause of the search in the St-Petersburg office of "Memorial" is the show of the film "Rebellion. Case of Litvinenko" prohibited in Russia.

At the Moscow Regional Military Court, where the trial on the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya continues, a hidden witness has stated today that one of the defendants - Sergey Hadjikurbanov - was going to gather data on the journalist. However, the defendants' advocates have stated that the witness knows nothing particular about the murder.

The Public Board for Human Rights now set up in Ingushetia will make sense only in case all its members are involved in real work aimed at solving existing problems, believes Magomed Mutsolgov, leader of the Ingush Human Rights Organization "MAShR".

On Tuesday, December 2, brothers-journalists Ganimat and Sakit (Mirza Sakit) Zakhidov were been temporarily released from custody to take part in commemoration of their father. Initially they were prescribed to get back into their cells on December 3, but then they were allowed to stay at large till December 8.

The Ilaev brothers, who lived in Pervomaiskoe village, Grozny District of Chechnya, and who were allegedly killed in a skirmish, and were militants as the law enforcement bodies assert, could become victims of a denunciation. This is the idea of one of the brothers' acquaintances.

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) has sent a letter to the Government of Azerbaijan in the context of consideration of the complaint filed by ex-Minister of Public Health Ali Insanov. The document refers to Article 39 of the Regulations of the Court and emphasizes the need to send Insanov to the hospital of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice.

The authorities of Russia are guilty of disappearance of Arthur Bersunkaev, a resident of Chechnya, in 2001 and of a heavy injury of Lipatu Umaeva in 2000. This decision was made public today by the European Court on Human Rights.

The European Court on Human Rights has found the authorities of Russia guilty of disappearances of four men, which happened in different districts of Chechnya in the period from May 2001 to November 2002; this was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Arsen Sakalov, Director of the Ingush NGO named "Legal Initiative", which rendered assistance to the applicants.

Today in the morning, unknown persons in masks appeared at the office of the Scientific and Information Centre "Memorial", situated at 23 Rubinshtein Street. They presented a statement of the Prosecutor's Office of St-Petersburg on making a search. Three employees of the "Memorial" were blocked inside the office.

Today in the afternoon, seven workers of the Iki-Burul public utilities enterprise in Kalmykia stopped their protest action in the form of a termless hunger strike.

Today, the city of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, has hosted a students' mass protest action against destruction in Georgia of historical and cultural heritage of the Armenian nation, and, first of all, against encroachments on the Armenian Church Surb Norashen in Tbilisi; the action took place at the building housing the UN representative office.

Today, the Committee on Religious Matters under the Government of Dagestan held a press conference. Chairman Ahmed Magomedov met journalists.

The jury has found guilty seven members of the skinhead gang headed by Arthur Ryno and Pavel Skachevskiy. Other two figurants in the case were completely acquitted and released right in the court room.

Sarkis Atspanyan, former participant of the Karabakh war, activist of the opposition, currently a citizen of France, sentenced to two months of deprivation of freedom, has started a termless hunger-strike in prison "Vardashen" in Armenia; he demands to stop the illegal criminal prosecution against him. Mr Atspanyan also protests against tapping his telephone conversations and control of his correspondence.

The Investigatory Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia has initiated a criminal case on the fact of stealing money from the hostages after the terror act at the Dubrovka Theatrical Centre. The advocate of the suffered party Igor Trunov thinks that by doing so at the Prosecutor's Office tries to hamper consideration of civil suits lodged.

Five ecological organizations have sent a letter to the World Heritage Centre with description of the facts of defaulting by Russia of recommendations of UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) on ensuring safety of the object of the World Natural Heritage "Western Caucasus".

On December 1, at 3 a.m., the house of the Ilaev family located in Pervomaiskaya village, Grozny District of Chechnya, was surrounded by employees of power agencies. Having rushed into the house, some of them dragged brothers Alvi and Adkhan out of their beds and pushed them into the cars, in which the agents arrived. Others searched the house and took away TV and video appliances.

The state prosecution at the process considering the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya has presented the results of comparative examination of video records and the pistol, by which the journalist was killed.