News

On Friday, July 19, outside the building of Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan, solo pickets were held demanding to stop the criminal prosecution of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, a journalist of the "Chernovik". The pickets found support among passersby and drivers of cars passing by.

Idris Yusupov, an employee of the Dagestani edition "Chernovik" (Draft), has stated that he was detained on Friday during a raid conducted by law enforcers near the "Tangim" mosque in Makhachkala.

Abidat Kurbanalieva met her son Kurban, detained in Moscow, in Chechnya. Law enforcers failed to explain the reasons for his detention, she said.

In Northern Caucasus, divorced women find it difficult to achieve custody over their children if the ex-husband decides to keep them. Relatives can interfere with mother's contacts with children and put pressure on them, the rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have stated after the death of a four-year-old girl from Makhachkala in her stepmother's family.

The state of health of Azad Gasanov, an activist of the "Musavat" Party, who is conducting his hunger strike for the fourth day at the Baku SIZO (pre-trial prison), has deteriorated. He is protesting against the protraction of his trial, which has been on for more than six months, said his advocate.

Positions of the Azerbaijani army in the Karabakh conflict zone were shelled 19 times during 24 hours, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reported.

In Tbilisi, despite the ban of the law enforcement bodies, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of a resident of the Pankisi Gorge, killed in a special operation, set up a tent in Rustaveli Avenue.

A TV report about a woman who was begging in Grozny continued a series of exposing stories on the Chechen TV Channel. Residents of the republic condemned the public persecution of the family.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) filed a complaint against the court's decision to sanction a demonstration in support of journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev in Makhachkala.

During their scheduled monitoring, officials of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) monitoring mission found no violations of the ceasefire regime on the troops contact line.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recognized a violation of the rights of three Azerbaijani activists under the article of "the freedom of association" of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and obliged Azerbaijan to pay them 4500 euros as compensation of their suffered moral harm.

People in a car with Chechen number plates took Kurban Kurbanaliev from Moscow to Chechnya, relatives are not informed of the reasons for the detention, said Abidat, Kurban's mother in her appeal to Ramzan Kadyrov. Earlier, Chechen law enforcers suspected Kurbanaliev of having links with militants, but stopped persecuting him for absence of corpus delicti.

Georgian law enforcers did not allow Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of a Pankisi resident killed in a special operation, to set up a tent in front of the parliament building, explaining that some repair works had been planned in this place.

President Vladimir Putin and investigators know about the extrajudicial execution of 27 residents of Chechnya, but in Russia this case has no prospects, says Igor Kalyapin, a rights defender. Relatives of the persons from the "execution list" fled the country after exposed to pressure by law enforcers, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger, has informed.

The charges brought by investigators against Ingush activist Zarifa Sautieva are groundless, she is being prosecuted for political reasons and should be released, declares the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". An advocate of Zarifa Sautieva complained about a ban for visits to her.

Today, Azerbaijani activist Ayaz Magerramli has left the country after five refusals of border guards to let him leave Azerbaijan.

Magomed Khazbiev, sentenced for insulting Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Evkurov and illegal arms trafficking, left a penal colony. He was met by his friends and relatives.

Bairam Mamedov, an activist of the movement "Nida", was called and invited to come to the Baku Police Chief Department in connection with his complaint of torture during his arrest. Human rights defender Ogtai Gyulyalyev notes that the case on torture should be investigated by the Prosecutor's Office.

A soldier of the Army of the Defence of Nagorno-Karabakh, who was found dead, tried to shoot and kill his colleague and then committed suicide, investigation suggested.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to recognize as unlawful the Russian authorities' refusal to register organizations of LGBT activists in a number of Russian cities, including Sochi, will allow creating such communities in Russia, says one of the plaintiffs. Sochi is one of the cities where sexual minorities do not feel safe, report members of the LGBT community.