News

The statement about the public apology practice voiced by the Deputy Mufti of Dagestan does not mean an approval of the practice and a call for self-censorship. The religious leaders only urge not to create conflicts with thoughtless phrases, the heads of the Dagestani media suggest.

Viskhan Khadjimuradov, a nephew and an associate of the President of Ichkeria, was forced to speak on camera in Chechnya, claimed a son of Aslan Maskhadov, living in Europe. The "Grozny" TV Channel announced an interview with Viskhan Khadjimuradov, in which he criticized supporters of the Chechnya's independence who had migrated to Europe.

Believers do not have to agree with a fatwa against female circumcision to be prepared by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan, and the recognition of the fatwa depends on the personal authority of the Mufti, Islamic experts emphasize. The problem of female circumcision is controversial in Muslim countries.

The Sabail District Court of Baku has rejected the petition to transfer Ragim Gaziev, a former head of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD), to house arrest. Human rights defenders insist that Gaziev's arrest was unlawful, and that there were political reasons for persecuting him.

Units of the Armenian Armed Forces have violated the ceasefire for 29 times by using large-calibre machine guns, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

The voting results for the candidates for Belarusian presidency, organized in Georgia, are more reliable than those announced by the republic's Central Election Commission (CEC), activists believe.

Arthur Mkrtchyan, sentenced to life imprisonment, has declared an endless hunger strike in protest against the change of his custody regime, the Armenian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has informed. The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) is creating artificial obstacles in the cases of life-sentenced prisoners, human rights defenders assert.

A 33-year-old resident of the village of Surkhakhi in Ingushetia was killed when his car was shelled from a submachine gun, and his mother and wife were hospitalized with wounds, investigators have informed.

Participants of the actions held in Tbilisi and Batumi have called on the Georgian authorities not to recognize the outcomes of the presidential election in Belarus, where opponents of Alexander Lukashenko are holding protests since August 9.

One person was killed and at least two others were wounded when a car was shelled in the Nazran District, sources report.

A court in Dagestan has left the residents of Azerbaijan, Nakhid Agaev, Aziz Ferekzad and Emin Imamaliev, accused of using violence against law enforcers during protests in the tent camp in Kullar, in custody for another month. They refuse to plead guilty.

Public prosecutors succeeded in seeking a toughening of the verdict against Ramazan Gagiev, who hit a fighter of the National Guard of Russia at a rally in Magas. The court prolonged the term of imprisonment for the activist from four to eight months.

The authorities of Azerbaijan have no right to delay the return of their citizens from Russia and force them to live in a tent camp in Kullar, and this is the basis for a claim to be filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), human rights defenders note.

Ruslan Alkhanov, the Chechen Minister of Internal Affairs, instructed his subordinates to monitor the compliance with the mask regime even more strictly. Instagram users note that the coronavirus prevention measures in the region are already excessive.

A soldier from Chechnya was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment in a penal colony after he had shot and killed his colleague in Damascus for quarrelling in the presence of their commander.

On August 11, Aziz Mamiev, the deputy chairman of the youth organization of the opposition "Musavat" Party, was fined for violating the mask regime and then released from a police station. The activist considers the punishment as unlawful.

Leila Djash, the head of the Baksan branch of the Association of Victims of Political Repression, has treated the criminal prosecution of her son Khasan for theft as illegal. According to her version, her son's signatures under the confession protocol had been forged.

The court has dismissed the complaints against the arrests of Sarvan Djumaev, Babek Muradov and Yashar Kerimov, members of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA). The advocate and the PFPA have stated violations of the procedure and the detainees' rights to defence.

Azerbaijani citizens continue arriving at the tent camp near the Dagestani village of Kullar. A day after another group of Azerbaijanis was sent to their homeland, the number of camp residents again exceeded 700 people.

Supermarket workers in Grozny are intimidated by strict checks and are closely monitoring the presence of medical masks on customers, local residents report. Ramzan Kadyrov and his entourage are demonstratively ignoring the mask regime, and this noticeably annoys people, analysts note.