News

The lawyers of one the defendants in the case of murder of Paul Khlebnikov, chief editor of the Forbes magazine Russian version, have filed a complaint to the Russian Federal Service for Enforcement of Punishments (FSIN) and special rapporteur on human rights at the UN Committee against Torture and other Inhuman Treatment in connection with the pressure exerted on their defendant, reports RIA "Novosti."

Forty thousand Chechen residents may find themselves on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the suspension of activity of the Danish Committee on Refugees.

The Nizhni Novgorod prosecutor's office states that it is going to appeal against the sentence to Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, chief editor of the "Pravozaschita" newspaper. The "Gazeta.Ru" correspondent reports that the prosecutor's office intends to file an appeal in the course of this week.

The fate of the employee of the Grozny office of the International Red Cross Committee who was kidnapped in Chechnya by unidentified persons in summer of 2003 is still unknown.

On February 6, the first session on the case of a Russian officer, through whose fault the village of Starye Atagi in Grozny district, Chechnya, was shelled, started in Grozny garrison military tribunal.

On February 4, one of the Krasnodar Territory TV Channels and a local newspaper suggested that human rights activists are connected with secret services, in particular, with British intelligence, runs the message from the "Novorossiysk Committee for Human Rights" submitted to the "Caucasian Knot."

During the period from 2000 to 2005, the courts of Stavropol Territory have considered 440 civil cases connected with compensation for damage to persons who suffered as a result of crisis in Chechnya.

On February 2, 2006, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ingushetia completed the hearing of the case of Murad Iraklievich Margoshvili, a Chechen resident accused of crimes under Article 205, Part 3 (terrorism), Article 209, Parts 1, 2 (banditism), Article 222, Part 3 (Illegal acquisition, storage, transportation or wearing of arms and explosives), Article 223, Part 3 (Illegal manufacture of arms), Article 34, Part 3 (Illegal trade in hard or poisonous substances).

On February 3, a clean-up ("zachistka") was carried out in the Kotar-Yurt settlement of Achkhoi-Martan district, Chechnya.

"It very much looks like a forgery," Yuri Dzhibladze, president of Moscow's Centre for Development of Democracy and Human Rights, said who was monitoring the Dmitrievskiy's trial progress.

The "Memorial" human rights centre has made a statement on the court trial over Stanislav Dmitrievskiy which runs that "the verdict to Dmitrievskiy is a further step towards liquidation of freedom of speech in the country."

"The declarative part of the sentence to Stanislav Dmitrievskiy is a full copy of the presentation of the prosecution case at the hearing," stated today Tatiana Lokshina, chair of the board, Moscow's centre "Demos."

The sentence given today to Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, human rights activist and journalist, has been commented on by Oleg Panfilov, director of the Centre of Extreme Journalism under the Union of Journalists.

It has just become known that no observers are being let into room No 40 of the Soviet district court in Nizhni Novgorod where at 12.30 p.m., after a break, Judge Vitaly Bondarenko is expected to announce the verdict on the "Dmitrievskiy's" case.

On February 3, at 10 a.m. the court session on the case of Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, executive director of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and chief editor of the "Pravozaschita" newspaper, started in Soviet district court of Nizhni Novgorod.

The public organization "German-Russian Exchange" has made a statement condemning the accusations of Russian non-government organizations (NGOs) in connections with foreign secret services.

The human rights activists arrested yesterday on the Lubyanka Square will pay a fine for approaching the Russian FSB building.

On November 14, 2005, in the village of Varenikovskaya more than thirty Russian citizens expressed their concern that the Law of Krasnodar Territory of July 2, 2004 "On Measures to Prevent Illegal Migration to Krasnodar Territory" runs counter to article 27 of the RF Constitution which protects the right of citizens to the freedom of movement and choice of residence.

The Stavropol human rights centre, in close collaboration with "Novorossiysk Committee for Human Rights", has completed work on the full-length documentary "Iskhod" (exodus) about a long-standing discrimination, based on the nationality, of Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar Territory.

Alexander Guryanov, activist of the "Memorial" centre and one of the persons detained in the course of an unsanctioned picket to protect NGOs held in front of FSB, reports to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that all the persons detained during the picket have been released from the Meschanski district militia station.