News

Today, Emin Guseinov, head of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), was discharged from the emergency hospital, where he had been taken in the state of unconsciousness as a result of the physical violence exerted on him at the 22nd police station of the Nasiminskiy District Interior Department of Baku.

The report entitled "As though they fell from the sky: counterterrorism, human rights violations and impunity in Ingushetia", presented by human rights activists today in Moscow, runs that dozens of residents of Ingushetia became victims of kidnappings, murders and tortures.

The Islamic Committee of Russia has put forward five requirements to the country's leadership: admit Moslems to formation of home and foreign policy of the country; ensure free elections to power bodies in the republics "with the indigenous Muslim population", first of all in Northern Caucasus; admit Moslems to mass media; reconsider politically-motivated criminal cases against Moslems; and stop prohibiting Islamic books.

On June 24, the Nasiminskiy District Court of the capital of Azerbaijan, presided by Judge Shakhin Abdullaev, has continued the trial of Sergey Strekalin, accused of giving a knife wound on March 13, 2008, to Agil Halil, employee of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom). The judge has ruled that the victim should take part in the trial.

The Freedom House human rights organization has published its 2008 report on the progress of democracy in the transitive countries, according to which the aggregate democracy indicator in Armenia went down.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has expressed a "serious concern" with deterioration of the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan and demanded immediate release of the arrested journalists.

The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has made a decision to recruit new candidates for the jury, since as a result of duly motivated withdrawals, today only 6 persons remained out of 145 candidates.

Today, the Azerbaijani Court for Grave Crimes, presided by Judge Shakir Aleskerov, has put a full stop in the process of Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural Centre and editor-in-chief of the "Tolyshi Sado" (Talysh's Voice) newspaper, and Elman Guliev, executive secretary of the newspaper, who were accused of treason against the State.

Right at this moment, employees of the Federal Service for Punishment Enforcement (FSPE) try to move several families of refugees from Azerbaijan and Abkhazia out of a hostel located at No. 19 Yasny Proezd.

In the Shali District of Chechnya, law enforcement bodies are investigating the circumstances of a tragedy in one of local families. A seven-year-old boy was casually handling a fowling piece and fatally wounded his sister who was five years old.

The non-announced ban on departing from Azerbaijan imposed on Agil Halil, a journalist of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" (Freedom), was introduced by the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan. This is the conclusion made by Elchin Sadygov, journalist's advocate.

In Georgia, on June 28, the women kept at the Tbilisi corrective establishment for women and minors No. 5 are going to renew their hunger strike, which had been interrupted because of the pressure exerted by the prison administration.

The materials of the murder case of Ilyas Shurpaev, reporter of Channel One and a native of Dagestan, have been transferred by inquiry bodies of Tajikistan to the court.

The court session of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria on the trial of the militants' attack on Nalchik accomplished in October 2005 has been postponed till June 24. Advocate Elizabeth Shak has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the reason of the delay was another fact of beating the defendants by the escort.

In Krasnodar, residents of the hostel located in Tuapse held a protest action against their eviction. Ten persons went out to the "Aurora" movie theatre with posters in their hands. They plan to hold a range of pickets in the Kuban capital.

People in Chechnya think that the appeal of the Republic's Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev to Russian president Medvedev with a request to set up an interdepartmental commission in charge of searching those residents of Chechnya who were kidnapped or regarded to be missing will not bring any serious results.

In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, a cadet was dismissed from the local branch of the Krasnodar University of Interior, whom the University's bosses found to be an advocate of Wahhabism. The incident grew into a scandal, which draw even the attention of the Republic's Prosecutor's Office.

Today, after the rally held in Sochi, the residents of this resort city have addressed their letter to the leadership of Russia, Corporation "Olympstroy" and Public Chamber of Russia with a request to keep the territory of the Imereti Lowland untouched.

The US Helsinki Commission held a briefing on June 19 in the US Congress with participation of Russian experts on Northern Caucasus dedicated to aggravation of situation in Ingushetia.

It is planned that in the 2nd decade of July, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev will visit Turkey. In the course of the visit, Mr Aliev, together with Presidents of Turkey and Georgia Abdullah Gьl and Mikhail Saakashvili, will take in the launching ceremony of the Turkish section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.