News

The authorities of Azerbaijan need political prisoners as a frightening factor to maintain the stability of the government, so a pardoning requested by human rights defendants from the Azerbaijani president is unlikely to affect many political prisoners. This opinion was voiced by analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

Konstantin Samsonov, Alexander Akopov, and Shamil Sultanov, accused in a case against the Jehovah's Witnesses*, are at large. However, the defendants are not able to return to their workplaces and are experiencing difficulties with medical assistance because of the restrictions imposed on them by the court, advocate Denis Vladimirov reports.

After an arrest of a law enforcer suspected of possessing drugs, mass searches were conducted in the Dagestani village of Tarki. Local residents associate the searches with the revenge of relatives of the arrested law enforcer against the opponents of drug addiction, the "Mediazona" reports today.

The authorities collected the garbage left by a resident of Chechnya in the forest and transported it to his house, while the villager himself publicly apologized for his act. Some Instagram users have criticized officials for the above actions.

In Chiatura, policemen detained two men suspected of attacking a journalist and a TV channel operator who prepared a report from the village of Shukruti, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported.

In four regions of southern Russia, a total of 19 people have been detained who had planned terror acts in Northern Caucasus; extremist materials, weapons and ammunition have been seized from them, the Russian FSB (Federal Security Bureau) has reported today.

On February 16, the Nagorno-Karabakh's Ministry of Defence (MoD) released a new list of servicemen who perished in the hostilities during the last autumn escalation of the conflict. The list includes 132 names of militaries, the "News.am" has reported.

The Teberda Nature Reserve in the Karachai-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) is being transformed into a national park. It is unknown how the reserve's lands will be used after the status change, social activists and ecologists assert.

The correspondence in social networks and telephone messages presented at the Essentuki City Court have nothing to do with the leaders of the protest action in Magas, while the many hours of announcements of materials at the trial only protract the process, the advocates have stated.

The Azerbaijani party has handed the bodies of 106 people killed in the conflict zone over to the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh, the president of the unrecognized republic has informed.

In Northern Caucasus, women are forced into the role of a sort of "children-producing bag"; and the act of a Dagestani woman who invented a story about the death of her twins during childbirth could have been the result of psychological pressure, Saida Sirazhudinova, the head of the "Caucasus. Peace. Development" Centre, said in an interview with the "Lenta".

The Baku Court of Appeal upheld the verdict to Mukhammad Imanly, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), sentenced to imprisonment on the charge of spreading COVID-19. The defence will file a cassation appeal and has already addressed the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with a complaint about the pre-trial arrest of Mukhammad Imanly, advocate Asabali Mustafaev said.

In Yessentuki, a court found Magomed Khamkhoev, who took part in a rally in Magas, guilty of inciting an attack on law enforcers. Taking into account the term served by the man at a SIZO (pre-trial prison), he is to spend eight months in a penal colony.

The press secretary of Vladimir Putin decided to familiarize himself with the material released by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" about the detention by Chechen law enforcers of 108 people, some of whom fell victim to extrajudicial executions later.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced a decision that the Supreme Court of Russia should reconsider the unjust verdicts to Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, sentenced for the murder of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

More than 200 residents of Adjara, including those dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic, forced migrants, and farmers affected by the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Chorokh River, held at a protest action on February 15. The protestors request the government to solve their problems.

A Moscow court has ruled to arrest for three months Said Asadulaev, a Russian kickboxing champion, accused of involvement in the shootout in the "Moscow City" Business Centre in 2017.

The head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, promised to launch, since March 1 on, systematic work on removing garbage dumps in the republic. Instagram users have urged authorities to move from promises to deeds and demonstrate a real solution to the problem of garbage collapse.

The Baku Human Rights Club has appealed to Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliev, with a request to release 110 persons sentenced to various prison terms, including life imprisonment, the "Turan" News Agency reported on February 15.

The participants of the flash mob in support of Vladimir Putin, held on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, were involved there by deception, for which the organizers of the action should respond, social network users insist.