News

Today, the Supreme Court of Dagestan will hold the first hearing on the resonant case about the murder of Farid Babaev, leader of the Dagestan regional branch of the "Yabloko" Party and candidate for the State Duma. Judge Ibram Garunov will chair the trial, which will be held with participation of jurymen.

Magomed Mutsolgov, Ingush human rights activist, member of the Expert's Board of the Office of Russian Ombudsman and leader of the "Mashr" human rights organization, has returned from Poland, where he took part on October 5-10 in OSCE session on fulfilment of obligations related to human dimension in 2008.

The Grozny Garrison Military Court has stopped proceedings under 12 out of 31 civil suits lodged by former servicemen of the "Vostok" (East) battalion of the Russian Ministry of Defence deployed in Chechnya against their early dismissal from the military service.

In its statement of October 21, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia criticised Russia for using cluster bombs against peaceful population and invited the world community to hold an objective and fair investigation of all the circumstances of Russia's military aggression on Georgia.

According to the data of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of today, over 20,000 refugees have returned to Georgian territories adjacent to South Ossetia.

In Dagestan, on demand of the Republic's Department of "Rossvyazokhrankultura" (Federal Agency for Communication and Culture Protection Issues), a linguistic examination is underway of certain publications in the "Time of Action" newspaper, published in Derbent, for the presence of extremist statements in some of the articles.

The authorities of Georgia have opened access to Russian Internet websites, which were blocked in August after the start of the military conflict in South Ossetia.

Valery Konovalyuk, head of the temporary investigatory commission of the Supreme Rada, set up to inquire into the facts of deliveries of Ukrainian armaments to Georgia, has stated the danger, to which he is exposed in connection with the work of the commission.

The European Union, when making comments on the outcomes of the presidential election in Azerbaijan on October 15, has stated that local authorities had done a lot according to the recommendations of the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Venetian Commission.

Right at this time, in North Ossetia, members of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan" are holding a picket in defence of the bill designed by them and entitled "On Social Defence of the Rights of Terror Act Victims". Some 50 persons have rallied near the building of the Russian Academic Theatre in Vladikavkaz.

In the city of Karabulak in Ingushetia, a person has been just kidnapped, an eyewitness of the incident informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The picket to take place today at 4:00 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Justice and organized by human rights activists and journalists in defence of the rights of the imprisoned satirist Mirza Sakit, journalist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper, is postponed.

On Sunday, October 19, militiamen prevented a mass fight in the northeast of Moscow; there are no victims, a source in the Moscow City Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD) has reported today.

In Azerbaijan, satirist Mirza Sakit, journalist of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" (Freedom), who is serving his term at Penitentiary Establishment No. 14, was beaten.

Inspectors have suspended the investigation of the case about accidents in the Kerch Strait, where on November 11 last year several ships sunk in the strongest storm.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, an interdepartmental commission has been set up to investigate the reasons of the accident of the Moscow-Nalchik passenger bus that took place on the Kavkaz Federal Highway last Sunday, on October 19.

In the context of the appeal of the OSCE Chairman to the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR), a group of experts was sent to Abkhazia with a mission to assess the situation with human rights in the conflict zones; the group will work from October 11 to October 25.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of South Ossetia has ordered its watching stations (posts) to respond with return aimed fire, in case they are attacked by aimed fire from Georgian positions.

The FSB Department for the Republic Ingushetia has announced that today the area of dwelling settlements Muzhichi and Galashki in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia has become a counterterrorist operation zone.

On Saturday, October 18, the Ministry of Defence of South Ossetia stated that on October 17 Georgians kidnapped three persons from the South-Ossetian village of Artsev.