Results of your search

The decrease in the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan does not yet indicate any change in authorities' policies towards their opponents, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent believe.

The police drew a protocol against Krasnodar lawyer Mikhail Benyash on the organization of an unsanctioned action. The lawyer himself treated the above as a law enforcers' attempt to deprive local Alexei Navalny's supporters of legal aid, since the lawyer promised to defend them.

One of the men who participated in the beating of Ruslan Totrov is a "close associate" of South-Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov, the journalist reports today.

In the regions of the Southern Federal District (SFD) and the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), supporters of oppositionist Alexei Navalny decided to hold marches and pickets in his support despite the fact that the law enforcement bodies warned the activists about responsibility for unsanctioned protests.

Evgeny Kochegin, the head of Navalny's Volgograd office, and activist Maria Khudoyarova were taken to the police station, Sergey Kunitsky, an advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which found Russia involved in human rights violations in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, will help in speeding up the consideration of the armed conflict at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and will make it possible to achieve a decision at the UN International Court of Justice on the return of the lost territories, the Georgian human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

While watching his ancestral village of Katar-Yurt, Chechen law enforcers found Aslan Byutukaev's secret hiding place, says the publication by the "Kommersant". Law enforcement sources said that the militants had tried to break out of the encirclement.

In its today's judgment in the case of Georgia v. Russia (II), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recognized that Russia was involved in the violation of human rights in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but was not responsible for the hostilities in August 2008.

Influential prisoners under the control of prison administrations try to prevent Ombudsperson's officers from inspecting prisons and other prisoners – from filing complaints, Georgia's Ombudsperson Nino Lomjaria claims. She has urged the Georgian government and parliament to intervene in the situation.

Niyameddin Akhmedov, a member of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), arrested in a case on financing of terrorism, has been charged with public appeals against the state and illicit trafficking in banned items. Niyameddin Akhmedov pleads not guilty, the PFPA reports.

Over the past five months, the number of political prisoners has decreased by 46, and now makes 146 persons, the Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" (UFFPPA) has stated. At the same time, human rights defenders treat the fact of the presence of political prisoners in the country – a member of the Council of Europe as unacceptable, and call on the authorities to release all the political prisoners.

After the liquidation of a militant grouping headed by Aslan Byutukaev in Katar-Yurt it is too early to declare the end of armed conflicts in Chechnya, as a young generation is growing up, dissatisfied with authorities' policies, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

Five law enforcers were slightly wounded in a shootout that broke out in the outskirt of the village of Katar-Yurt, the Chechen Minister for Information and Press has informed.

A special operation in the village of Katar-Yurt was preceded by two attacks on policemen in Chechnya and the killing of a suspected militant in the Achkhoi-Martan District.