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On December 17, Elchin Bekhbudov, chair of the Azerbaijani Committee against Torture, has addressed the Interior Minister Ramil Usubov on the issue of torture used at the 24th police station of the Nizami District Police Department.

A number of criminal cases initiated against oppositionists on clashes with the police on March 1 in Yerevan have been closed because of insufficient evidence. Journalists were informed about it by Vaagn Arutyunyan, head of the special investigatory group.

Ecologists now know from documents that three Departments of the Krasnodar Territory had participated in legalizing the road constructions in the "Bolshoi Utrish" Nature Reserve near the city of Anapa. And one of them - the Department of Biological Resources and Environment Preservation - has coordinated all the issues of this construction within one day.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Kikvidzenskiy District of the Volgograd Region has revealed a number of gross violations in the operation of the state specialized in-patient establishment of social service of citizens of advanced age and invalids named "Macheshanskiy Boarding Home for Old People and Invalids". The top managers of the establishment were brought to administrative responsibility.

The final report of the Observant Mission of the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE runs that at the presidential election in Azerbaijan on October 15, the conditions crucial for pluralistic democracy were not observed.

The Monitoring Group of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan (MGHROA) has summed up its 2008. "The elapsing 2008 wasn't varicoloured from the viewpoint of ensuring human rights and won't be remembered for any significant positive events," Novella Dzhafaroglu, chairperson of the Society in Defence of Women's Rights named after Dilyara Alieva, said today in the press conference, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The Armenian party objects to setting up a special commission for studying the accessory of the Surb Norashen Church, since historically it is Armenian. This was stated by Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, head of the Eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AACh) in Georgia, in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Prosecutor's Office of Moscow has recognized the fact that the property of the victims of the Dubrovka terror act was plundered. Advocate of the suffered party Igor Trunov said that such statement was made by the spokesman of the Prosecutor's Office of Moscow.

Nazir Kotiev, Chairman of the human rights organization named "Union of Deportees from North Ossetia", asserts that nobody is now dealing with the real solution of the problems of forced migrants from the Prigorodny District and Vladikavkaz from North Ossetia.

The trial that starts on December 19 on the criminal case of participants of mass disorders on March 1-2 in Yerevan, also known as the "Case of Seven", will be open, said Alina Engoyan, press secretary of the Cassation Court of Armenia.

Despite all appeals of the members of the Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners, Sarkis Atspanyan continues his termless hunger strike. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from human rights activist Vardan Arutyunyan, who characterized Atspanyan's health condition as very grave.

In the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, 11 retired miners are on hunger strike. The protesters, some of them have been hospitalized, stand for the privilege they deserve by the law - the right to use free-of-charge coal or heating facility.

In Utrish, Krasnodar Territory, the builders have started to cut down century-old junipers in the area of the second lagoon - in the very centre of the "Bolshoi Utrish" Natural Reserve. On December 15, the site was visited by the investigatory group from the Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Anapa, accompanied by the "Green" activists.

Today, Elchin Bekhbudov, Chair of the Azerbaijani Committee against Torture, has visited ex-Minister of Public Health Ali Insanov, who is treated at the medical establishment of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice located in Beyuk Shor village, and Ruslan Bashirli, leader of the "Eni Fikir" (New Thought) Youth Association, kept in Colony No. 1.

The rights of forced migrants in Georgia are violated since the country's leadership lacks clear programme and coordinated actions, as well as due legislation on how to tackle their problems. This was stated by lawyer Simon Papuashvili, coordinator of the project on rendering legal aid to refugees at the Human Rights Centre, in his interview to the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

On Tuesday, December 16, the Nariman District Court of Baku, presided by Judge Turgay Guseinova resumed consideration of the claim lodged by the religious community "Believers of Nariman District" versus Nariman District Police Department. The believers want to restart attending the "Abu-Bekr" Mosque, which was subjected to armed attack on August 17 this year, when a grenade exploded inside killing two persons and wounding 13 more.

The delegation of South Ossetia has arrived to Geneva to take part in consultations on Transcaucasia to be held on December 17-18. South Ossetia plans to demand from the western powers not to equip Georgia with offensive arms and observe their obligations not to use of force in the conflict zone.

For a long time the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria fail to pay "combat" bonuses and overtime money to servicemen and equated persons, which are due to them under the federal legislation for performing their duties in reinforcement periods and extra work. In many cases the indebtedness term reaches up to 10 years. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Timur Bogatyryov, Director General of the "Hermes" legal firm.

The verdict of guilty in the "Case of Seven" lacks evidences, which could justify sending the case to the court, runs the letter of a group of advocates to Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, about the violations and drawbacks found in the verdict of guilty.

At the closed hearing of the ad hoc commission of the National Assembly of Armenia for studying events on March 1, General-Lieutenant Grigor Grigoryan, ex-commander of internal troops, has confessed that on March 1 in the evening he gave an order to the sniper "to neutralize" the armed participants of the rally.