News

Tortures, kidnappings, murders and various other violations of human rights continue in Chechnya. This is the topic of the report disseminated by the "Demos" Moscow Information-Analytical Centre.

The defendants in the case of blowing up the Grozny-Moscow train deny their guilt, Valery Prilepskiy, advocate of one of the case figurants, has reported.

Azerbaijan has founded the Committee in defence of the rights of Samir Sadagatoglu, editor-in-chief of the "Sanat" newspaper.

The British authorities have reported that the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, ex-FSB officer, may be regarded cleared.

Today, it is one year from the date of murder of Sandro Girgvliani, a servant of the Bank of Georgia.

Today in the afternoon (about 1:30 p.m. Moscow time), Ms. Chabieva, Malika Mikhailovna, born in 1969, a refugee from Chechnya, was kidnapped by unknown armed persons in masks from the Temporary Residence Centre (TRC), located in the village of Sleptsovskaya, Republic of Ingushetia, in the territory of "Mekhstroj."

In the city of Volzhsk, Volgograd Region, Gypsies have been arrested on a mass basis since January 24.

On Friday, the North-Caucasian Regional Military Court continued interrogation of prosecution witnesses in the case of two officers of Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federations accused of murdering peaceful residents in Chechnya.

Zurab Muzoshvili, a Georgian citizen, whom the authorities had intended to deport home, died in the reception-distribution centre of the city of Saratov, the Rustavi 2 TV Channel reported on Friday.

The 2006 report on violations of human rights in the Krasnodar Territory evidences a growth of pressure on civil activists and continuation of ethnic discrimination.

Ramzan Kadyrov, chairman of the Chechen government (prime minister), has expressed his bewilderment with publications and utterances of certain politicians and experts about his soon inauguration as Chechnya president.

Today, the Presnenskiy Court of Moscow has defeated the first one out of the 42 claims of the residents of the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya lodged against the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (RF).

The Nazran District Court of Ingushetia has rejected the claim of the "Mashr" Association of Relatives of Missing People demanding to qualify as illegal the actions of the Mayor's Office of the city of Nazran who prohibited to hold a picket in memory of Anna Politkovskaya.

A criminal case has been initiated in relation to Andrei Novikov, independent journalists from the city of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, and permanent author of materials in the web site "Chechenpress" of non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, under point 1, Article 280 of RF Criminal Code, for "sending two electronic letters with "extremist," in the opinion of prosecution, materials to local newspapers."

Ramzan Kadyrov, Prime Minister of Chechnya, intends to insist on revision of criminal cases in relation of the Chechens who got to prison under fabricated, as he thinks, allegations.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is going to call both Chambers of the Federal Assembly of Russia to hold an independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006.

On January 19, having served his complete sentence of two years at a general security corrective colony of the Nyrob settlement in the Perm Territory, Pavel Lyuzakov, permanent author of the "Kavkaz-Center" web-site of Chechen separatists and the editor of the "Svobodnoe Slovo" (Free Word) newspaper of the Democratic Union, got liberty.

On January 25, the Presnenskiy Court of Moscow will continue the process on the suit of 42 inhabitants of the village of Borozdinovskaya of the Shelkovskoj District of Chechnya towards the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (RF).

In the evening of January 23, at Solovetskiy Boulder in the Lubyanka Square of Moscow, a picket was held in defence of the "Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship" (SRChF), after the court ruling to liquidation it was confirmed yesterday by the Supreme Court of Russia.

On Saturday, January 20, the Kremlin held discussions of the candidature of a president of Chechnya, who will soon replace Alu Alkhanov.