News

On March 16, the Venetian Commission of the Council of Europe (CE) promulgated its multi-page document with a legal examination of the amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan offered for the referendum to be held on March 18.

Yesterday, on March 16, in the Kurchaloy District of the Chechen Republic, a contracted soldier from the engineering-sapper subdivision of the Internal Troops of Russian MIA was lost. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about the incident by the Republic's Military Commandant's Office.

A group of residents of Zakatal District of Azerbaijan have addressed today their written application to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev. Shamil Kurbanov, one of the signatories, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the address was caused by the unwillingness of Baku officials to register the Avars' National-Cultural Centre "Dir Vartan" (My Homeland).

Today, the Parliament of Azerbaijan has adopted the Amnesty Act, which was submitted as a legislative initiative by MP Mekhriban Alieva, wife of President Ilham Aliev. The amnesty is dated to the spring holiday of Novruz. Meanwhile, human rights activists believe that this is no solution to the problem of political prisoners.

Russian Army Sergeant Alexander Glukhov who ran away from his military unit in South Ossetia has asked for political asylum in Georgia, as Shota Utiashvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, has stated.

During the time in power of President Yunus-Bek Evkurov, and he took the office in the end of October 2008, the special reconciliation commission managed to reconcile 19 feudists (blood feud avengers), as Ruslan Neiriev, office manager of the Spiritual Centre of Ingush Moslems, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Today's session on the "Case of Seven" in the capital of Armenia was held in an empty courtroom, without defendants and their advocates; only Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan and prosecution party were present. The Judge complained of disrespectful attitude of advocates to the court and said that he would lodge a complaint to the Bar. Some minutes later the session was stopped and postponed by the Judge till March 23.

The investigatory group of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office for the South Federal District (SFD), which dealt with the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, is now trying to identify body No. 82, which until recently was considered to be Murat Kardanov, a resident of Zolukokoazhe village. For this purpose they take blood again for genetic examination from mothers of some casualties and searched persons.

In order to find out anything about the fate of Russian pilot Alexander Koventsov, who was shot down in August in Georgian air space, Russia is studying the documents with tabular DNA codes of human remains, received from Georgia via the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC); however, the remains are still kept by Tbilisi. This was stated by General-Colonel Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Deputy Chief of Joint Staff of Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The law enforcement bodies of Chechnya are investigating the circumstances of kidnapping and subsequent assassination of a resident of Roshni-Chu village, Urus-Martan District, accomplished last Saturday, March 14. In the opinion of Chechen power agents, most likely, this crime was committed by members of IAFs.

On March 13, the Centre of Legal Education named "Rights Above All" and located in the city of Novocherkassk, Rostov Region, held a debate session under the motto "Hope on adults, and yourself…?" where the participants, senior schoolchildren of the city, discussed the problems of school self-management.

According to the opinion of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) of Azerbaijan, on March 1-10 the TV Channels gave little attention to the questions put out to the referendum on March 18 on amending the Constitution.

In the village of Prigorodnoe, Grozny District of Chechnya, unidentified persons kidnapped a young man, who had earlier worked as inspector. His mother was killed. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by employees of the Information Centre of the Union of NGOs of Chechnya.

Musa Pliev, advocate for the Evloevs family, has reported that the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia initiated a criminal case on the fact of illegal arrest of Magomed Evloev, former owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru" at the airport of the city of Magas.

The Krasnodar territorial authorities are ready to provide, within two weeks, the Old Ritualists from the village of Nekrasovskoe, located in the Imereti Valley, where Olympic objects will be erected, with sets of documents, drawings and plot layouts in a new village to be built for them.

Deputies of Russian State Duma Mikhail Grishankov and Ivan Melnikov have positively appreciated the offer moved by President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov to declare amnesty to those militants who were not involved in grave crimes. Thus, Mr Grishankov, first deputy chair of the State Duma's Security Committee, believes that Evkurov's offer to amnesty militants in Ingushetia is an indication of his desire to understand the situation and stabilize it.

Today, Ali Insanov, former Minister of Public Health of Azerbaijan, was transferred from the medical establishment of the Penitentiary Service back to Colony No. 13, where he serves his 11 years of imprisonment after being sentenced for committing economic crimes.

On February 27, Utsmi Banzhaev, 17, son of the human rights activist from Chechnya Vakha Banzhaev, who tried, together with his cousin Bislan Abubakarov, 24, to illegally cross the Lithuanian-Russian border, was detained in Lithuania for the term of one month.

Today in Georgia, under the initiative of the political association "Our Abkhazia" and a group of refugees from Abkhazia, a congress of refugees took place. It was attended by about 1500 refugees who left Abkhazia in early 1990s and now live in different areas of Georgia.

The parliament of Georgia has approved the bill on amendments to the Law "On Advertisement Business", according to which advertising of strong alcohol drinks in any kind is allowed in the country until January 1, 2011.