News

Yesterday, June 26, pickets were held in Makhachkala against torture used by the law-enforcement agencies of Dagestan.

The "Reporter without Borders" human rights organization suspect that the arrest of Sakit Zakhidov, Azeri opposition journalist, is politically motivated, reports the Center of Extreme Journalism.

Yesterday, on June 26, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PАСЕ) discussed the issue of the mandate of the Azeri parliamentary delegation.

"It seems that we are protecting the population of Volgograd region from social protection agencies and military commissariats," stated Victoria Podkhvatilova.

Jacob Kellenberg, head of International Red Cross Committee, expressed his deep concern in connection with violation of prisoners' rights in the prisons of Northern Caucasus and, in particular, in Chechnya.

On Friday 23 June, the Khasavyurt town court of Dagestan considered the issue of the legitimacy of initiation by Khasavyurt department of internal affairs of a new criminal case against Osman Boliev, leader of the local human rights organization "Romashka" charged with acquisition, storage and carrying of fire arms and participation in an illegal armed unit.

Sakit Zakhidov, journalist of the "Azadlyg" opposition newspaper, was detained on June 23 night and brought to the Azeri MIA Department on Fighting Drug Business.

The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a decision not to compile a report on human rights situation in Chechnya.

The Khasaviurt town court of Dagestan adopted a decision on the legitimacy of initiation of new criminal proceedings against Osman Boliev, leader of the local human rights organization "Romashka", charged with acquisition, storage and carrying of fire arms and participation in an illegal armed unit.

On June 26, 2006, 109 life prisoners in Gobustan prison (Azerbaijan) started another hunger strike demanding that their sentences should be reviewed.

A committee to defend the rights of arrested Sakit Zakhidov, an opposition satirist journalist, was formed at today's sitting of the Council of Editors and representatives of journalist and human rights organizations of Azerbaijan.

Yesterday, on June 25, non-government organizations held a silent action in Sharden Street (a street in Tbilisi, close to the embankment, where the most popular cafes in the Georgian capital are open).

When opening the "round-table" discussion, Valery Khatazhukov, leader of the Kabardino-Balkaria human rights center, stated that, so far, it had been impossible to discuss torture publicly, since the republic's political regime itself used to be source of numerous unlawful actions.

Today, the Caucasus still faces the consequences of numerous conflicts which brought about complicated problems of displacement and migration and a destructive socio-economic situation. Several conflicts are in a deadlock.

The "Caucasian Knot" editorial office has received a joint open letter of the International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Moscow Helsinki Group in protection of Osman Boliev, a well-known human rights activist from Dagestan, addressed to Rashidkhan A. Magomedov, prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan.

The protests of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol region) residents on the issue of city construction have resulted in the creation of a city duma commission on monitoring the construction development of the resort city, which is going to exercise its powers until the Pyatigorsk general plan has been approved.

On Monday, June 26, pickets in protest against torture applied by the Dagestan law-enforcement agencies with regard to persons under investigation are to be held in Makhachkala.

Yesterday, June 22, the Lenin district court of Rostov-on-Don considered the law suit on compensating moral and material damage, filed by the "Mother's Rights" foundation on behalf of the father of Alexander Artiushin, a regular army soldier from Moscow who had been killed in the army.

On June 21, a 20-year-old man was beaten in the Staropromyslovsk district of the Chechen capital by officers of law enforcement agencies.

Novella Jafaroglu, an Azeri human rights activist, has demanded that the government of Iran should not violate the rights of Azerbaijanis who form the majority of the country's population.