News

Singularity and novelty of the meeting of activists of socio-political organizations with President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin was that human right activists of the North Caucasus were communicating directly with the president for the first time, and moreover, "there were no pre-registration for making a speech - it took only to raise your hand." This opinion was expressed by head of Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center Valery Khatazhukov who participated in the meeting.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, in Baksan, an official spokesman for the Investigations Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office Vladimir Markin informed, "At around 10.20 pm two unidentified men made numerous shots pointblank from guns at the deputy prosecutor of the Baksan district, who died on the spot."

Agreement between the governments of Abkhazia and the Russian Federation on mutual visa-free travel, which the parliament of Abkhazia has ratified today, envisages a visa-free travel of citizens of both republics for up to 90 days, including holders of both foreign and internal passports and sailor IDs, as well as children below the age of 14.

As reported by law enforcement bodies of the republic, on May 19 in the Gudermes District of the Chechen Republic, power agents detained an officer of the patrol-post service who transported a large batch of weapons and ammunition in his car. A check was initiated on the fact.

Today, the Perm Territorial Court has left without satisfaction the cassation presentation of the Prosecutor's Office against the court decision on the conditional early relief (CER) of Grigory Grabovoy. The pseudo-healer convicted for swindle can get at large already on May 21.

Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the Ingush human rights organization "Mashr", "was almost completely satisfied" with the meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Dmitri Medvedev and his Plenipotentiary in Northern Caucasus Alexander Khloponin, although the human rights activist was not given the floor. According to his version, those colleagues who were given the floor had problems with the timetable - only three minutes were given to every speaker, - therefore, half of the participants failed to speak.

Alaudin Dudko, who is known in the Internet under nickname ingushetiya_ru and who is now kept in the SIZO (pre-trial prison) Butyrka in Moscow on suspicion of drug and explosive storage, was presented new charges - under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Excitation of hatred or enmity and humiliation of one's dignity." Mikhail Kriger and Anna Karetnikova, members of the public observation commission for detention places, who visited Mr Dudko in the SIZO, report about poor blogger's health condition after beating and because of unsatisfactory custody conditions.

On May 19, the Garadag District Court of Baku continued the trial on the new case of the earlier convicted journalist Einullah Fatullaev, this time accused of illegal drug storage. At the trial, the defendant asked to invite Gusein Guseinov, an independent SAP (substance abuse professional), as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The parents of Lieutenant Andrei Rezanov, serviceman of the 33rd Separate Mountain Motor-Rifle Brigade of the Ministry of Defence, accused of murdering the head of the MIA of Dagestan Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, state that their son has alibi.

Two citizens of Georgia detained by the Russian military on the Georgia-South-Ossetia border on 18 May are released, the Sachkhere district militia department reports.

There is a problem with the execution of anticorruption legislation in Kabardino-Balkaria. On 18 May, this was discussed by the roundtable participants with the public engagement in the Parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria. As it was stressed by the deputy chairman of the Republic's Supreme Court Leila Zanikoeva, combating corruption affects only the lower- and middle-level officials, and does not reach the top ones.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg fined Russia for 100.000 euros, acknowledging that the Russian authorities were responsible for the death of a Chechen Walid Dzhabrailov in 2003.

The Moscow City Court has found lawful the extension till November 28 of the custody of Timur Kartoev, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in November 2009, having upheld the decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow.

The self-made land mine that blew up in Grozny in the evening on May 17 was remotely triggered, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by a source in the Chechen militia. According to his version, law enforcement bodies of the republic continue searching organizers of this terror act, which killed Lieutenant Colonel Lom-Ali Khadjiev, head of the operative search of the Republic's MIA, and wounded two more high-ranking militia officers.

The fifth report prepared by the two members from the opposition of the Factfinding Group about events on March 1, 2008, says that the armed forces of Armenia were illegally involved in the events that took place in Yerevan two years ago. According to the report, the secret order of the ex-Minister of Defence AN-0038 of February 23, 2008, was completely contradictory to the Constitution and the Law of Armenia "On Defence".

Today, ten residents of the Imereti Lowland, whose houses get into the Olympic construction zone, dissatisfied with the actions of the "Olympstroy" and local authorities, have gone on hunger strike.

At the meeting with human rights activists, President Dmitry Medvedev was convinced that the human rights movement in the North Caucasus exists, Svetlana Gannushkina, chairman of the Civic assistance committee, board member and head of Migration and Law network of Human Rights Centre "Memorial", a member of Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Today, activists of the Azerbaijani civil society have handed their appeal over to international organizations and expressed their concern of the expanded practice in recent years to torture defendants and inmates. The text of the appeal was drawn up on May 15.

Dmitry Medvedev intends to consider the possibility of eliminating unnecessary checkpoints in the North Caucasus, a Public Chamber member Maxim Shevchenko stated, following today's meeting of the Presidential council on civil society institutions.

Today in the Kremlin, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with the activists from non-governmental organizations. During this meeting, Medvedev backed out of a creation of the council of elders in the North Caucasus and specified the problems of his particular concern in the region. At the meeting, the human rights activists, who were engaged in monitoring of human rights violations in the region, presented their reports - previously posted in the "Caucasian Knot", voicing criticism of the government actions in the North Caucasus.