News

The case files on the murder of Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Forbes Russian version, have arrived to the Moscow City Court for retrial.

The authorities of Russia have been found guilty of torturing the residents of Chechnya.

The victims of the terrorists' capture of Beslan school No. 1 (North Ossetia) have sent an open letter to the deputies of the parliament of the republic with a request to hold hearings of Yuri Saveliev, a member of the federal parliamentary commission for investigating the act of terror, who has prepared an alternative report.

The Kremlin has linked together the murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

On January 18, 2007, a press conference "A Year to Presidential Election: Terror Victims Want the Truth" was held at the Independent Press Centre in Moscow.

The Musaev family, residents of the village of Avtury of the Shali District of Chechnya, addressed the representative office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny.

"We are afflicted with the decision of the Court on Sergey Lapin," Fredericka Ber, representative of the largest in the world human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) a AI's researcher for Russia, stated to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot."

Each of the forty-two claims lodged by residents of Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya versus the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation on compensation of moral damage will be considered separately.

On January 16, 2007, before the start of a court session in Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Territory), a sentry beat Anton Stepanenko's advocate and Andrei Grudin, the second defendant in the case.

On January 17, the Supreme Court of Russia has ruled to send the case of Sergey Lapin (radio call sign "Cadet"), criminal search senior lieutenant of the Interior Department of the city of Nizhnevartovsk, who was convicted for torturing Zelimkhan Murdalov, a resident of Grozny, capital of Chechnya, to the first instance court for a new consideration.

The Appellate Court of Azerbaijan has changed the restriction measure (arrest) in relation to Bakhtiyar Gadzhiev, creator of the Internet web-site susmayaq.biz.

Today, the North Caucasian Regional Military Court has continued the proceedings of the case of interior troops officers Evgeniy Khudyakov and Sergey Arakcheev, accused of murdering Chechnya residents.

The trend of recent years - hampering by the state of enforcement of the decisions of the European Court in the territory of the Russian Federation - may result in suspension of the Council of Europe membership.

The Krasnodar Territory Court has passed a verdict on the criminal case in relation to four district militia officers and one their civil acquaintance, accused of murdering an Adygea resident.

Officers Evgeniy Khudyakov and Sergey Arakcheev, accused of murdering peaceful residents of Chechnya, refuse to admit their guilt.

On January 15, the premises of the Federation for Peace and Accord have become the venue of the roundtable with participation of human rights defenders from such public organizations like the Committee for Civil Rights, "Social Partnership" Foundation, "Public Verdict," as well as representatives of state institutions for defence of human rights and specialists in the area of fighting tortures, cruel and humiliating treatment and punishment.

On January 16, the European Court for Human Rights will notify about 27 court judgments made and will announce decisions on 24 cases. One of them refers applicants from Chechnya - Arbi Chitaev and his brother Adam, born in 1964 and 1967, respectively.

January 15 is the deadline for the amnesty declared last July by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia to participants of armed formations in North Caucasus.

Today, an action in memory of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper, is held in Paris.

On January 13, Bakhtiyar Gadzhiev, creator of the web-site www.susmayaq.biz, was detained in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.