News

Today at 5:30 p.m., in the Novopushkinskiy Mini-Park in the centre of Moscow, a picket against the war in Chechnya was organized by the Committee of Antiwar Actions and Antiwar Club.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported earlier that a picket was organized on September 3 in Moscow near the Solovki Boulder in memory of Beslan events.

The children of the militants who perished during October events in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, have begun to receive social pensions at a rate of 1035 roubles per month.

On September 30, Academician Eldar Salaev will leave for Turkey to continue his treatment.

It has become known to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that another life-term prisoner has committed suicide in Gobustan prison (Azerbaijan).

Yesterday, September 26, Judge Natalia Dyatlova from the Moscow Magistrate Court District No. 370 delivered her judgment on administrative cases of the participants of the mourning human rights picket held on September 3 this year "In Memory of Beslan Tragedy," which was prohibited and dispersed by the authorities of the capital.

On July 11 and 12, 2006, the "Renaissance-Moscow" hotel hosted an All-Russian Conference "The Other Russia," convoked by the Action Committee of the All-Russian Civil Congress.

Yesterday, July 14, the state of health of Sakid Zakhidov, the satirist journalist arrested in Azerbaijan, sharply deteriorated, told Emin Husseinov, head of committee for the protection of S. Zakhidov's rights, to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Today, the Federation Council plenary session approved amendments into the Federal Law "On Counteracting Extremist Activity ", which more precisely formulate the notion of "extremist activity."

The administration of Gobustan prison (Azerbaijan) goes on exerting pressure on the participants in the hunger strike, trying to make them stop it, according to the sources linked with the prisoners' relatives who provided information to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Said Nuri, activist of the "Eni Fikir " ("New Thinking") youth organization, who is under a suspended sentence of five yours in prison in Azerbaijan, has called the sentence on his companions-in-arms unfair, noting that the court hearing was conducted with violations of the law.

Today, representatives of a number of Abkhazian NGOs and journalists disseminated a joint declaration in which they note that people in Abkhazia have enthusiastically welcomed the decision to declare 2006 the Year of Abkhazia in South Ossetia and the Year of South Ossetia in Abkhazia.

Information about death of Ali Insanov, former Health Minister, was not confirmed, runs the message of the Public Relations Centre of the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan.

In his interview to Radio Liberty, a senior official of the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan admitted the fact of hunger strike held by the inmates of the Gobustan prison. But the official insisted that only three life convicts are on the action.

Miklosh Kharashti, OSCE mass media representative, expressed his concern in relation to arrest in Azerbaijan of Sakit Zakhidov, a satirical journalist.

June 30, 2006, inhabitants of the refugee settlement Maiskiy of the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia declared themselves getting prepared for a hunger strike action.

Amendments to the law "On Counteracting Extremist Activities," adopted in the first reading by the State Duma, will impede the work of human rights activists and journalists who criticize bureaucrats, Russian human rights activists think.

The hunger strike of the inmates of the Gobustan prison continues.

The Nalchik City Court refused to satisfy a complaint of Rasul Kudayev, who was arrested on accusation of participation in the events of October 13, 2005, a citizen of the settlement of Khasanya and a former prisoner of the American prison in Guantanamo, on refusal of the investigator of the prosecutor's office of Kabardino-Balkaria to initiate a criminal case on the facts of being tortured.

On the eleventh day of the hunger-strike, started in Azerbaijan by life-sentenced inmates of the Gobustan prison, the health condition of some of them - Giorgiy Geladze, Shakir Rzakhanov, Ali Guliev and Bakhtiyar Dzhafarov who sewed up his mouth - got rapidly aggravated.