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A picket dedicated to signing of the peace agreement between Chechnya and Russia in 1997 will be held in Helsinki on May 27 near the Russian Embassy in Finland. It will be attended by refugees from Chechnya and Ingushetia, citizens of Finland and activists of various international human rights organizations.

Hotel "Assa" in Nazran was the venue of the meeting of Ingush rights defenders and relatives of missing persons with Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

The Migration Service of Norway continues passing refusals of asylum to refugees from Chechnya. It often happens that some Chechen family members are granted asylum, while other members are rejected. One of the refugees, who asked not to disclose his name for security reasons, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about such case. Local rights defenders confirm that such cases are not unique.

In the course of the session of the Lenin Federal Court of Makhachkala, the journalists of the newspaper "Chernovik" were found innocent.

The judicial investigatory on the criminal case against the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, accused of slandering the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov is over. The trial is entering the stage of debates; the start thereof is scheduled for June 9.

In the opinion of journalist Zoya Svetova, the author of the book "Innocent Found Guilty" about the fate of Zara Murtazalieva, sentenced in 2005 on charges of terrorism, and scientist Igor Sutyagin, convicted under the article of espionage, Zara Murtazalieva will not get her conditional early relief (CER).

The dean of the Chechen State Pedagogical Institute (CSPI) in Grozny extorted bribes from students on the pretext of the need to invest money to the Public Foundation named after Akhmad Kadyrov.

Dibir Nabiev, a member of the Bar Association "Kavkaz", has stated his intention to strive for punishing the policemen of the Kizlyar ROVD (District Interior Division), who had forced him to leave the ROVD building. He wrote about it in his application to the Dagestani Public Prosecutor.

The unemployment level in the republics of Northern Caucasus is almost four times higher than in Russia on the whole, Alexander Zhukov, Vice-premier of Russia, reported at a conference in Essentuki devoted to the situation in labour market in North-Caucasian Federal Okrug. Zhukov criticized the regional administrations for not exploiting the assets allotted on reduction of unemployment.

The sister and fellow villager of suicide bomber Magomed Evloev, who blew himself up at the Moscow "Domodedovo" Airport, have been released from custody; all suspicions against them are cancelled.

A resident of Tbilisi Sulhan Dekanoidze joined a five-days hunger strike of oppositional solicitors near the building of the Georgian Parliament and sewed up his mouth. Dekanoidze expresses his protest against the detention of his brother David stating that he is illegally kept in the investigative isolation ward.

Today at 10:56 a.m., the blog of the Ingush rights defender Magomed Mutsolgov that he runs on the "Caucasian Knot" was cracked; that is, a post was published on his behalf, of which he was not the author.

Several mothers in Volgograd whose children cannot attend kindergartens because of the lack of places will join the all-Russian hunger strike on May, 20. This is already the seventh hunger strike held by mothers like them residing in other regions.

Yesterday, May, 18, disabled Samvel Mikaelyan started an open-ended hunger strike near the Embassy of France in Armenia. The participant of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh is indignant with the fact that his social and domestic problems have not yet been solved.

Gogi Tsulaya, ex-deputy of the Georgian Parliament, Chairman of regional organization of oppositional movement "Free Georgia", was detained in Kutaisi, Press service of the movement reports.

Urus-Martan city court in Chechnya obliged the Ministry of Defense to pay 500 thousand rubles for the loss of a woman soldier in Chechnya. According to the judgment, the victim's mother will receive the money as a compensation for moral damage.

On May 17 in Chechnya, a sentence was passed to the 15-year-old boy, who last summer reported false data to the "MegaFon" mobile operator about an impending major terror act.

Four citizens of Georgia have been detained for illegal crossing of the state borders of South Ossetia, said the KGB (State Security Committee) of South Ossetia. According to the Georgian MIA, the young people were gathering edible herbs near the border, when Russian frontier guards tried to arrest them. According to the Georgian party, two of the Georgians were wounded.

The Lenin Federal Court of Makhachkala held another session on the case of journalists from the newspaper "Chernovik" accused of "inciting extremism" and "kindling hatred" to law enforcement bodies. In their last statement the journalists refused to plead guilty. The sentence will be announced on May 19.

The court of general jurisdiction of the administrative districts Kentron and Nork-Marash of Yerevan has ruled to extend by two more months the custody of Major-General Ovannes Tamamyan, ex-head of the Chief Department of Criminal Investigation of the Police of Armenia.