News

The Tbilisi City Court has ruled to punish Meloru Vachnadze and Henri Bibileishvili, activists of the youth movement named "Join!" and participants of the action at the entrance to the building of Parliament, with a 13-day imprisonment.

The law enforcement bodies engaged in investigating the circumstances of kidnapping and subsequent murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the HRC "Memorial", are searching two cars and the young woman, who was in immediate proximity from the place of the incident at the moment of kidnapping.

Maskhud Abdullaev, son of Chechen field commander Supyan Abdullaev, who was deported from Egypt, is now in Grozny and plans to leave for Baku on July 24 to his mother. He told about it to Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance" in a telephone conversation.

At least six or seven persons were kidnapped and illegally detained in the last two-three days in the territory of the Chechen Republic. This was reported by the HRC "Memorial". According to human rights activists, they received this information from a spokesman of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

A well-known human rights activist Mikael Danielyan, head of the Helsinki Association, complained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that custody conditions of Arshaluis Akopyan, an activist of the Association, are very hard.

The Ingush opposition has launched a new website, which will work in the manner of the former "Ingushetia.Ru ", when the deceased Magomed Evloev was its owner. This was stated today by Magomed Khazbiev, one of Ingush oppositionists.

The murder of human rights defender Natalia Estemirova has pushed Russian emigrants to dynamic actions. They held a rally in Estemirova's memory on July 17 in Paris. Françoise Petre, employee of the Bureau for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that earlier they were rare guests at this sort of actions.

Murder of human rights advocate Natalia Estemirova causing resonance in Russia and abroad; another meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents; crash of Iranian aircraft with Armenian passengers onboard - see these and other news in the review by "Caucasian Knot" of the main events in the Caucasus on July 13-19.

The Grozny office of the HRC "Memorial" has received a cable from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, in which he condoles on the death of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Centre.

The decision of the leadership of the HRC "Memorial" to suspend the work of the Centre in Chechnya is ambiguously treated in the republic. Some people find it reasonable, while others express fear that suspension of the human rights organization will untie hands of power agents, who have recently sharply strengthened their punitive and repressive actions.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which is leaving Chechnya, plans to finish all the cases started in the in republic. According to Oleg Orlov, the chairman, the lawyers of "Memorial" will finalize all the cases filed by them to the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of residents of Chechnya.

The body of assassinated Natalia Estemirova was found in the area, where last year the fatally wounded Ingush oppositionist Magomed Evloev was detected, who had been detained on the previous day by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia at Magas Airport. In the opinion of a source in law enforcement bodies of Chechnya, this circumstance and a number of others evidence that the kidnapping and murder of the renowned human rights activist were parts of a carefully devised action.

An independent public commission is now set up in Russia for investigating the circumstances of the death of the well-known Chechen human rights defender, employee of the HRC "Memorial" Natalia Estemirova.

On July 20, the GUVD (City Interior Department) of Moscow accepted the application submitted by Andrei Krasnenkov, advocate of President of Chechnya, and requesting to open a criminal case against Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the HRC "Memorial".

On July 20, the Baku Appeal Court continued considering the appeal complaints lodged by bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, who challenged the decisions of the first instance court about their arrest for 2 months on accusation of hooliganism.

Today, a judicial session took place in Dagestan on the claim of "Rossvyazkomnadzor" (Federal Agency for Supervising Communications) to close the independent newspaper "Chernovik" (Blueprint), where the paper has lodged a counterclaim against Igor Tkachov, Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan and the territorial department of "Rossvyazkomnadzor" for Dagestan. The judge has accepted the counterclaim.

The murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the HRC "Memorial" is another tragic example of a cold-blooded murder of a courageous human rights activist, runs a personal statement of Mary Robinson, President of the International Commission of Lawyers. According to Ms Robinson, Natalia Estemirova was one of the most courageous and inspiring human rights defenders she had ever met.

The leading western media, while making comments on Natalia Estemirova's murder, express their concern that this not the first crime against human rights activists and critics of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and his Kremlin patrons.

On July 17, advocates of the freedom of speech in Azerbaijan commemorated Elmar Guseinov, editor-in-chief of the popular Azerbaijani "Monitor" magazine, who was shot dead by hired gunmen on March 2, 2005.

On July 17, the Parliament of Georgia adopted three bills "On Assemblies and Manifestations", "On Police" and Code of Administrative Offences, which assume tougher regulations on holding manifestations and more severe punishments for beaching them.