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On Wednesday, November 19, the general court of Yerevan communities Kentron and Noek-Marash convicted Smbat Aivazyan, a member of the Board of the "Republic" opposition party and former minister of state revenues, to two years of imprisonment and fined him by 300,000 drams (about 1000 US dollars).

The Moscow Regional Military Court has announced a break in considering the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", till December 1.

During the press conference on November 20, Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of the centre of the Armenian National Congress, promulgated an audio record of the interview of Samvel Nikoyan, chairman of the ad hoc parliamentary commission to a foreign journalist, where he said that during the events on March 1 snipers were used in the capital of Armenia.

Today, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria continued selecting reserve jurymen for the case on the attack of militants on Nalchik in October 2005.

Today at night, at the investigatory detention facility (SIZO) of Krasnodar, doctor Vladimir Pelipenko, sentenced to eleven months of imprisonment in the case of newborn Sofia Kulivets, whose arm was amputated, has committed suicide.

Today, in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in the editorial office of the popular independent weekly "Novoe Delo" (Res Nova), an attempt was made on Gadzhimurat Sagitov, deputy editor-in-chief for development and organizational work.

On November 17, during a fight in a Moscow-based higher school between natives of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, a student from North Ossetia was killed. The capital's militia marks a sharp growth in the number of interethnic conflicts among students.

More and more persons in South Ossetia have been recently accused of treason. However, according to Vissarion Aseev, a public figure and human rights activist from North Ossetia, none of these cases has been brought to the court.

The process on the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya will be held in the closed regime. The court had to make this decision after the jurymen refused to appear in the courtroom in the presence of the press, although no threats against them ever arrived.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Dagestan has analysed the results of the work of the law enforcement bodies of the Republic after 10 months of 2008 in fighting against kidnappings. Under the Office's information, in 2008, the law enforcement bodies of the Republic received 158 messages on kidnappings, of them the majority - 106 applications related to kidnapping of girls with the aim of forced marriage.

Eight members of the "Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners" have stated that they join the protest action of 28 political prisoners who had announced a one-day hunger strike as a protest action against the "hypocritical and inconsistent policy of the Council of Europe."

On November 24, at 12:15 a.m., the Independent Press Centre will host a press conference of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial": "Safety and Human Rights in Dagestan".

Today, the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) Department for Dagestan continued interrogating Gyulnara Rustamova, one of the leaders of the human rights public organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights". This was announced by Svetlana Isaeva, chairperson of the organization.

In Sochi, jurymen are hearing the case of the so-called "black realtors". Seven persons are in the prisoners' dock, including three militiamen and a notary. The information that arrived from the Centre for Defence of Citizens' Constitutional Rights and Freedoms to the "Caucasian Knot" runs that although the court sitting passes in the open regime, judge Klimov is by all ways preventing the public from being present in the courtroom.

About 24 thousand Georgians who earlier lived in South Ossetia and pre-border territories and who had been forced out of their houses as a result of the recent warfare, cannot return to their residences.

The Military Investigatory Department for the Circassian Garrison has initiated a criminal case on the fact of the death of Anton Shalamov, a soldier at mandatory service in the military unit of the city of Nevinnomyssk (Stavropol Territory), who was recruited from the Saratov Region.

Today, the Moscow Regional Military Court has formed the board of jurymen on the murder case of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper Anna Politkovskaya; the consideration of the case began on November 17. In total, 12 main and 8 reserve jurymen have been chosen.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Ingushetia has recognized as illegal the refusal of the district court of the republic to re-qualify the criminal case on the fact of the death of Magomed Evloev, owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru" from the Article "Causing of death by imprudence" into Article "Murder". Despite this decision, the case will not be re-qualified.

Today in the morning in Makhachkala, where an explosive has operated along the route of a VAZ-2110 service car and wounded Sultanvakil Sultanmagomedov, deputy mufti of the Spiritual Department of Moslems of Dagestan, his driver and bodyguard Gazimagomed Kurakhmaev.

Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sarkisyan, who has visited in the Yerevan hospital of Nork-Nork District journalist Edik Bagdasaryan who was beaten yesterday, has expressed his concern with the incident and condemned the attack on the journalist. Prime Minister has assured that the guilty persons would be found.