News

The Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia has invalidated the protocol on administrative offence in relation to Ella Kesaeva, leader of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan", accused of beating a judge and court marshals.

US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ms Ann Dears, who visited yesterday, on March 28, the family of the editor-in-chief of the "Azadlyg" newspaper Ganimat Zakhid, called the authorities of Azerbaijan to release all the arrested journalists.

In the city of Maralik, Shirak Region of Armenia, signatures are gathered under the petition in defence of Arutyun Urityan, head of the city election office of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was convicted to 7 years of imprisonment on charges of hampering elections and beating an election agent of Serzh Sarkisyan.

The searches underway in Tajikistan with the aim to find the suspects of murdering the journalist of Channel One Ilyas Shurpaev gave an unexpected result. Three persons are already figurants in the case.

Gyulnara Rustamova, chair of the committee "Dagestan Mothers for Human Rights" has told today to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that her organization has faced new problems caused by the refusal of local advocates to render legal aid to arrested citizens.

Ombudsman of Georgia Sozar Subari has stated this fact at the presentation of his report "Anatomy of Human Rights Violations in Georgia".

On March 28 the Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia held hearing on accusation of Ella Kesaeva, leader of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan", of beating a judge and court marshals. Ms Kesaeva asked the court to nullify the protocol on the offence and close the case, but the court rejected her petition.

On March 26, the body of a citizen of Azerbaijan, aged 33, was found in the Krasnogvardeiskiy District of St-Petersburg.

Judge of the Tbilisi City Court Georgiy Shavliashvili has sentenced in absentia Irakliy Okruashvili, former Minister of Defence of Georgia, to 11 years of imprisonment.

After cancelling of the state of emergency in Armenia, 68 persons have been brought to administrative responsibility in the form of fines for participation in non-authorized rallies, marches and protest actions.

The Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia is still holding session on charges against Ella Kesaeva, leader of the Public Organization "Voice of Beslan", of an administrative offence, but the members of the organization are not admitted into the courtroom.

The editorial board of the "Novaya Gazeta" (New Newspaper) thinks that today's statement of the State Prosecution that the investigation has established and announced into search the killer of Anna Politkovskaya, the paper's observer, has no news.

Today in Azerbaijan, three inmates of the Correctional Labour Colony (CLC) No. 1 have started a hunger-strike with a demand to free all political prisoners.

The Department of the Federal Service of Court Marshals for the Krasnodar Territory refutes the information about beating Anatoly Malyshev who tried to burn himself in protest against his family's compulsory eviction from the hostel.

Sergey Obukhov, Deputy of the State Duma (faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - CPRF), has directed some 20 requests to the Russian Public Prosecutor Yuri Chaika. He has indicated that that at presidential election on March 2 in the Krasnodar Territory, a total of 63,649 additional votes were ascribed to Dmitri Medvedev.

Within the latest six months, the Islamic Committee of Russia has received two complaints from relatives of the prisoners kept at the Federal State Institution Corrective Colony (CC) No. 11 located in the Stavropol Territory, where the colony administration was accused of illegal actions.

Svetlana Alisultanova, Ombudswoman in Dagestan, notes to a significant decrease in the number of kidnappings in the Republic. She has made this statement today at the 20th session of the National Assembly of Dagestan of the fourth convocation.

Today, the sitting of the Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia to consider the administrative charge against the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan" did not take place. Ella Kesaeva, the leader of the organization, has challenged the composition of the court.

The natives of Chechnya, who were arrested in May 2007 in Moscow and who have, in the opinion of the investigation, relation to the car stuffed with explosive left near the "Profsoyuznaya" Metro Station, and accused of preparing an attempt on Ramzan Kadyrov, are still kept in custody without presentation of charges.

Employees of the criminal search have managed to establish the murderers of Ilyas Shurpaev, a journalist of Channel One. According to the investigation, the aim of the murder was robbery.