Murder suspect Yevgenia Khasis, wearing a black hood over her head, sits in the defendant's cage of a Moscow court.
A Russian Investigative Committee has charged two suspects in the January murders of a human rights lawyer and a journalist, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.Vladimir Markin, a committee spokesman, said Nikita Tikhonov, 29, and Yevgenia Khasis, 24, were charged on November 5 with the double murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburina.
Kubanychbek Joldoshev suffered head injuries and broken bones in the attack.
Kyrgyz journalist Kubanychbek Joldoshev says an attack that left him hospitalized with a concussion was politically motivated, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.Joldoshev, 29, was severely beaten by three unknown assailants on November 2. He suffered head injuries and broken bones in the attack.He told RFE/RL that the taxi he was in was stopped by police and the taxi driver taken away by them to check "to see if he was intoxicated."Joldoshev said as soon as the police left with the taxi driver, three men approached the taxi and started beating him.Local police officials deny that the attack was premeditated. They claim Joldoshev was slightly drunk himself, but said the police who took the taxi driver for a checkup are being investigated.Turgunbay Jumabaev, the chief of the Investigations Committee in Osh, told RFE/RL that the attack is being considered an act of hooliganism.Joldoshev is a correspondent for the local newspaper "Osh Shamy" (The Torch of Osh). He used to work as a correspondent for RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.The chief editor of "Osh Shamy," Turgunbay Aldakulov, told RFE/RL that he and his colleagues believe the attack is most likely connected with Joldoshev's professional activities and should not be investigated as an act of hooliganism.The attack on him was the seventh against a journalist in Kyrgyzstan this year.Abduvahab Moniev, an independent Kyrgyz journalist who was severely beaten by unknown assailants earlier this summer, told RFE/RL that none of his attackers was found.Almaz Ismanov, who represents the regional Internet resource center "Oazis," told RFE/RL that after a local journalist was shot dead in Osh two years ago, local journalists have been reluctant to cover controversial issues.
Margulan Mukhambetov
The whereabouts of a Kazakh asylum seeker deported from the Czech Republic to Almaty remains unknown, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.Margulan Mukhambetov was flown to Almaty on October 10 and handed over to Kazakh border guards.He was reportedly met by people in civilian cothes at the airport, but has not been seen or heard from since.His relatives and rights activists believe he is being detained by security officials.Mukhambetov is one of some 200 Kazakhs who are followers of the Muslim branch of Salafism who have sought asylum in the Czech Republic since 2006.The Salafi group members in the Czech Republic say they would be persecuted in Kazakhstan, where Salafism is viewed by the government as extremist.Czech authorities officially informed the Kazakhs in early October that they would be deported, saying that as Kazakhstan will chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in January, it would not persecute its citizens for their religious views.Meanwhile, the Czech Interior Ministry has refused to comment to RFE/RL about Mukhambetov's deportation.It has decided, though, to extend the deadline for many of the Kazakhs who are seeking asylum until summer 2010.Ministry officials attributed their decision to extend the deadline to the large amount of documents immigration officers have to process.Meanwhile, the pro-presidential Atameken (Fatherland) party issued on November 1 a letter calling for an official investigation into Mukhambetov's disappearance.The letter, from Atameken chairman Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov, also urges Kazakhs to boycott Czech-made goods and vacations to Czech resorts because of that government's treatment of the Kazakh asylum seekers.Salafism is a Sunni Islamic movement that takes the first practitioners of Islam as exemplary models.Salafis do not recognize other branches of Islam. It was banned in Tajikistan in January.
Lyudmila Alekseyeva
Veteran Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva will be awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.The German Embassy in Moscow announced that the award is in recognition of Alekseyeva's long fight for democratic values and human rights.The ceremony for the award will be at the German Embassy in Moscow on November 5.Alekseyeva, 82, is the chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group.She is one of the few veterans of the Soviet dissident movement still active in modern Russia.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband speaks on Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met with human rights activists in Moscow today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. Oleg Orlov, the director of the Memorial Center for Human Rights, attended the meeting and told RFE/RL that Miliband expressed his concern over the killings of activists of nongovernmental organizations in Russia and the pressure that is being imposed on civil society. The activists told Miliband that the situation regarding human rights in Russia is worsening. Miliband also discussed nonproliferation issues and the situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, earlier on November 2. Miliband's trip comes on the third anniversary of the poisoning of Russian emigre Aleksandr Litvinenko in London. Britain wants a Russian man extradited to England in connection with the murder, but Moscow has thus far refused that request, saying that the Russian Constitution forbids the extradition of Russian citizens.
Kubanychbek Joldoshev is treated in hospital.
Kyrgyz journalist Kubanychbek Joldoshev was beaten by unknown assailants and hospitalized in Osh on November 2, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.Joldoshev, a former RFE/RL correspondent, was working for the "Osh Shamy" newspaper."Osh Shamy" editor Turgunbay Aldakulov told RFE/RL that three unknown assailants attacked Joldoshev as he was returning home.He suffered a concussion and other head injuries.Joldoshev's colleages say the attack is connected with his professional activities. He covered Osh University student protests last month.Several journalists have been threatened or severely beaten in Kyrgyzstan this year.Others have sought and received asylum in Western countries.
George Krol
A U.S. official has called on Kazakhstan to fulfill its obligations before it assumes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.George Krol, the deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told journalists in Astana on October 30 that Kazakhstan should carry out reforms it agreed to in Madrid last December.At that time, then-Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin told the other OSCE member states' foreign ministers that Astana would make progress on OSCE recommendations to change its laws on the media, namely the mitigation of responsibility for defamation and the liberalization of the registration for media outlets.Tazhin also said then that Kazkahstan intended to liberalize laws on elections and political parties.Kazakhstan is due to take over the chair of the OSCE on January 1.
RFE/RL journalists take risks, face threats, and make sacrifices every day in an effort to gather the news. Our new "Journalists In Trouble" web page recognizes their courage and conviction, and documents the high price that many have paid simply for doing their jobs. More