News

The introduction of a self-isolation regime has exacerbated social problems; the number of victims of domestic violence during the quarantine period has increased sharply, human rights defenders assert.

In Azerbaijan, the court has reviewed cases against opposition politician Ilgar Mamedov and human rights defender Rasul Jafarov and cancelled the verdicts of guilty. The court has also pronounced the decision on compensations to be paid to Ilgar Mamedov and Rasul Jafarov for their imprisonment.

In Chechnya, participants of a domestic conflict apologized for posting a video of their dispute on the Internet. Instagram users found their behaviour reckless and unethical.

Elchin Gasanzade (Gasanov), a journalist, a deputy chairman of the NGO "Legal Enlightenment of Sumgait Youth" and a member of the Supreme Majlis of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) fears that he will be arrested like other party members. They did not explain the reason for his summoning to police, he said.

Residents of the Pankisi Gorge face serious problems with infrastructure, medical care and drinking water; and they are restricted in mobility due to law enforcers' control, the NGO "Centre for Human Rights Training and Monitoring" has stated. Human rights defenders note that after protests against HPP construction, many projects scheduled for 2019 were suspended.

Communists of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) have celebrated the 150th Lenin's birthday, despite the quarantine. The imposed restrictions and difficulties associated with the quarantine regime are pushing people to protests, Boris Pashtov, the local communist leader, believes.

By the evening of April 22, the countries of Southern Caucasus, including the unrecognized republics, counted 3417 coronavirus infected patients; 1518 of them are in Azerbaijan, and 1473 – in Armenia.

The international organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RWB) has called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release Natig Isbatov, arrested on charges of violating the quarantine regime.

The Prosecutor's Office claimed that Bagaudin Myakiev took part in a rally in Magas out of political reasons and convinced the court to sentence the activist to imprisonment not in a settlement penal colony, but in a common-security penal colony. Given the period of the defendant's stay in a SIZO (pre-trial prison), the sentence of the Ingush activist increased by four months, an advocate calculated.

Most members of the Georgian parliament approved a decision to extend the state of emergency until May 22. The opposition criticized the measure as ill-conceived.

Law enforcers began checking the information about two men who had been deceived and forced to work at a sheep shed in the Tarumovsky District, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan reported.

In Vanadzor, for the second day, prisoners refuse to accept food in protest against prolonged trials and charges in their cases.

Unidentified persons have gained access to the accounts in the WhatsApp and Telegram messengers belonging to Ali Kerimli, the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the party has stated.

Sergey Lavrov, the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has announced the stages of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, mentioning the liberation of the areas around the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). Armenia will never resort to unilateral concessions, Zograb Mnatsakanyan, the head of the Armenian MFA, has stated, in his turn.

An Azerbaijani unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, or drone) was shot down on April 21 during its reconnaissance flight over the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), its militaries have reported.

Because of the threat of coronavirus spread, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) has suspended collective prayers in mosques. Ismail Berdiev, the Mufti, has urged his fellow countrymen to pray at home during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Help to those in need is welcomed in Islam; there are even special taxes aimed to raise funds to support the poor, Islamic scholars have noted in their comments to the criticism expressed by Chechen authorities concerning the woman who raised money for her daughter's treatment.

In the city of Gelendzhik, law enforcers beat up and tortured Denis Karimov, a resident of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), trying to knock confessions out of him, says the complaint sent by the Committee against Torture (CaT) to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Advocates of Khumaid Khaidaev, a native of Chechnya, have demanded from the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) and the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to check the information that Khumaid was brutally tortured after the inmates' riots in the Irkutsk Region. Khaidaev, convicted in 2008, was preparing for release from colony and could not be the organizer of the riots, his brother has suggested.

Nine Russian and international human rights organizations asked the Rapporteur on human rights in Northern Caucasus to register threats voiced by the leader of Chechnya against Elena Milashina, a journalist of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta".