News

Yesterday, on November 20, the court prolonged the term of custody for three residents of Kabardino-Balkaria, who are kept in Pyatigorsk SIZO, till January 11, 2009. According to advocate Magomed Abubakarov, in the course of investigation the suspects were exposed to violence.

Four residents of Ingushetia have stated their illegal arrest and torture at militia units. According to their statement, they were forced into confession of the crime they never committed.

Judge Evgeniy Zubov can be brought to disciplinary responsibility, if it is proved that his decision to make the trial of Anna Politkovskaya's murder case closed was illegal.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has made a decision to continue consideration of the murder case of Farid Babaev, leader of the regional branch of "Yabloko" Party in the open regime.

Today, in the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, at the proceedings on events of October 13, 2005, the prosecution asked questions to candidates for jurymen. A break was made in the trial till November 28, when the defence and prosecution should present their motivated challenges.

The States as a whole are satisfied with the progress in their relations with Azerbaijan, but Washington has some questions which are causing concern. Among them is the situation with the freedom of speech. This was discussed yesterday, on November 19, at the press conference in Baku, which was given by David Kramer, under Secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labour.

The Rostov Garrison Military Court has rejected the complaint of Valery Markaryan, father of a mandatory service soldier, against the decision of the Military Public Prosecutor of the North-Caucasian Military District (NCMD), who had reversed the inspector's decision to initiate a criminal case against officer Alexei Gvozdkov. The latter, according to Markaryan, incited him to bribery for making the verdict to his son more lenient.

On Wednesday, November 19, the general court of Yerevan communities Kentron and Noek-Marash convicted Smbat Aivazyan, a member of the Board of the "Republic" opposition party and former minister of state revenues, to two years of imprisonment and fined him by 300,000 drams (about 1000 US dollars).

The Moscow Regional Military Court has announced a break in considering the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", till December 1.

During the press conference on November 20, Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of the centre of the Armenian National Congress, promulgated an audio record of the interview of Samvel Nikoyan, chairman of the ad hoc parliamentary commission to a foreign journalist, where he said that during the events on March 1 snipers were used in the capital of Armenia.

Today, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria continued selecting reserve jurymen for the case on the attack of militants on Nalchik in October 2005.

Today at night, at the investigatory detention facility (SIZO) of Krasnodar, doctor Vladimir Pelipenko, sentenced to eleven months of imprisonment in the case of newborn Sofia Kulivets, whose arm was amputated, has committed suicide.

Today, in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in the editorial office of the popular independent weekly "Novoe Delo" (Res Nova), an attempt was made on Gadzhimurat Sagitov, deputy editor-in-chief for development and organizational work.

On November 17, during a fight in a Moscow-based higher school between natives of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, a student from North Ossetia was killed. The capital's militia marks a sharp growth in the number of interethnic conflicts among students.

More and more persons in South Ossetia have been recently accused of treason. However, according to Vissarion Aseev, a public figure and human rights activist from North Ossetia, none of these cases has been brought to the court.

The process on the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya will be held in the closed regime. The court had to make this decision after the jurymen refused to appear in the courtroom in the presence of the press, although no threats against them ever arrived.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Dagestan has analysed the results of the work of the law enforcement bodies of the Republic after 10 months of 2008 in fighting against kidnappings. Under the Office's information, in 2008, the law enforcement bodies of the Republic received 158 messages on kidnappings, of them the majority - 106 applications related to kidnapping of girls with the aim of forced marriage.

Eight members of the "Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners" have stated that they join the protest action of 28 political prisoners who had announced a one-day hunger strike as a protest action against the "hypocritical and inconsistent policy of the Council of Europe."

On November 24, at 12:15 a.m., the Independent Press Centre will host a press conference of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial": "Safety and Human Rights in Dagestan".

Today, the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) Department for Dagestan continued interrogating Gyulnara Rustamova, one of the leaders of the human rights public organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights". This was announced by Svetlana Isaeva, chairperson of the organization.