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Today, activists of the Azerbaijani civil society have handed their appeal over to international organizations and expressed their concern of the expanded practice in recent years to torture defendants and inmates. The text of the appeal was drawn up on May 15.

Dmitry Medvedev intends to consider the possibility of eliminating unnecessary checkpoints in the North Caucasus, a Public Chamber member Maxim Shevchenko stated, following today's meeting of the Presidential council on civil society institutions.

Today in the Kremlin, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with the activists from non-governmental organizations. During this meeting, Medvedev backed out of a creation of the council of elders in the North Caucasus and specified the problems of his particular concern in the region. At the meeting, the human rights activists, who were engaged in monitoring of human rights violations in the region, presented their reports - previously posted in the "Caucasian Knot", voicing criticism of the government actions in the North Caucasus.

Lyubov Tsechoeva, a resident of the Plievo Municipal District of Nazran, told about illegal actions of power agents against her family.

Today, the Supreme Court of Dagestan started considering the criminal case on the murder of Magomedgadji Abashilov, Director of the State Radio and Television Company (SRTC) "Dagestan", committed on March 21, 2008, in Makhachkala, with interrogating the victims and prosecution's witness. The trial is held with participation of a board of jurymen.

Not everybody in the republic supports the recent appeal of the Russian MIA Department for Ingushetia urging to apply extreme measures to those drivers whose cars have excessively tinted windows.

Leaflets appeared in the territory of Makhachkala and other Dagestan cities containing threats to alcohol and drug dealers, fortune tellers, and owners of gambling halls and saunas.

Georgian lawyers have addressed the Prosecutor's Office asking to open a criminal case against the policemen, had not allowed the protesting lawyers to set up their tents in front of the Parliament building. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from lawyer Vakhtang Gagnidze, one of the protesters.

In Volgograd, the parents of Sasha Kolokoltsev who was killed last June, was officially informed by the investigative bodies that crime components were not found in the actions of former prosecutor Elena Ivanova, who knocked down their son by her car. The expertise conclusions are conflicting though.

In Georgia, torrential rains, hail and hurricane caused great damage in Kvarelsky and Gurjaani districts, in particular, villages of Balgodzhian, Tsitskanaantseri, Eniseli and Vazisubani. The elements destroyed about 30% of the harvest, vineyards and spring crops.

Co-chair of Pravozaschita NGO Gulnara Rustamova has informed today that families of the local residents Akhmed Akhmedov and Karib Vagabov, who were abducted on 8 May in Derbent, approached her with information about the detainees being assaulted.

In Azerbaijan, despite certain progress in the freedom of access to information, the situation remains unsatisfactory, said Khaled Agaliev, project coordinator of the Institute of Media Rights (IMR) on May 17, when presenting the progress report on the situation in Azerbaijan with the freedom of information.

In the end of last week, a meeting was held in Grozny dedicated to the outcomes of the work of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) for the first four months of this year. Minister Ruslan Alkhanov stated that relatives of the members of the armed underground are accomplices of their crimes; therefore, they should bear the same responsibility as militants.

The dispersal of the peaceful action of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) Block and administrative arrests of its participants are rough violations of citizens' constitutional rights and freedoms. This opinion was expressed by Alesker Mamedli, an independent lawyer and an expert of the American NGO "IREX Pro Media", in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, when he made his comments on the arrest of the participants of the protest action held by the "Azadlyg" Block in Baku on May 15.

The NGO named "Residents of South Ossetia Against Genocide" will consider the claims submitted by residents of South Ossetia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) after the August war of 2008 against Georgia and rejected by the Court. For almost 18 months this organization deals with similar complaints against Georgia in the Hague Court.

On May 15, Evgeniy Zakharov, a member of the initiative group in defence of the city-resort Sochi, held a picket in the Plane-Tree Alley in defence of the general-use green zone located near the "Philately" shop. From 3 to 6 p.m. he stood there with posters calling to protect the city-resort from developers and statements to stop the town-planning terrorism. As of May 15, the initiative group collected 4000 subscriptions demanding to remove the fence near the "Philately" and stop "destruction of the resort by illegal commercial constructions."

Vice-Premier Alexander Khloponin, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), believes that Russia should form its attitude to the Caucasus as to country's strategic region.

The issue of potential appointment of Ombudsman in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) may be raised at the nearest meeting of Russian President with human rights defenders to take place on May 19, said Valentin Gefter, a member of the Board at the President of the Russian Federation for Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. In his opinion, we need a certain concept on how to address the problem of human rights observance in Northern Caucasus; however, the idea of NCFD Ombudsman, according to his version, is under-formulated and under-discussed. Other human rights activists partly agree.

In the capital of North Ossetia, members of the initiative group "Electrozink. What we breathe in?" at the website "Odnoklassniki.Ru" are holding a picket trying to draw public attention to the court decision on suspending the work of the "Electrozink" Factory.

Igor Ivanchenko, head of public safety militia of the OVD (Interior Division) of the Arseniev City District, Primorski Krai, was put behind bars after a criminal case was opened against him under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for excess of official powers in 2007, when he was sent to official service trip to Chechnya.