News

On September 24, Azerbaijani journalist, Afghan Mukhtarly, stopped the hunger strike in jail, held in protest against pressure on his advocate Nemat Kerimli. The reason for terminating it was a sharp deterioration of his health and appeals from civil society figures.

The remains of the soldier, Ramin Abdulrakhmanov, killed in the Karabakh conflict zone, were handed over to the Azerbaijani side with the mediation of the Red Cross.

The movie "Beanpole" made by Kantemir Balagov, a filmmaker from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has been nominated from Russia for the Oscar Award in the nomination "Best Movie in Foreign Language".

Magomed Kurbanaliev, who was killed on September 18, in a special operation conducted in the city of Chegem, was buried into the cemetery of the village of Kosyakino near Kizlyar. Kurbanaliev grew up in a problem family; and his brother was convicted for links with militants, local authorities have informed.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced the decision in the case of "Baisultanova et al. vs. Russia" and obliged the Russian authorities to pay compensation to family members of the ten disappeared residents of Chechnya.

Today, in Tkibuli, 15 miners of the Mindeli mine and the same number of miners of the Dzidziguri mine have refused to leave the mines until the wage arrears are paid, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports with reference to the report of the Georgian "Mtavari" TV Company.

Murad Shuaibov, sentenced on the charge of murdering a Dagestani journalist, reported on the practice of beating of prisoners in a penal colony. Anzor Gubashev, sentenced for the murder of Boris Nemtsov, complained about being abused for professing of Islam. Magomed Magomedov, a former member of the Dagestani parliament, complained about extortion of money in the penitentiary institution where he was serving his sentence.

Law enforcers did not bring any charges against two elderly sisters of arrested Ingush activist Zarifa Sautieva after they had been detained during a protest action, reported advocate Bilan Dzugaev. One of the sisters went on a picket in a square with the demand to release Zarifa Sautieva.

Investigators explain clashes between Ingush activists and law enforcers in Magas with "political hostility" and used a case-law charge of "organization of violence," advocates note. A new form of persecution of activists can be used in cases on riots in other regions, the lawyers suggest.

On September 23, at a protest action in Tbilisi, independent lawyers spoke out against consideration at the parliament of a list of candidates for the positions of judges of the Supreme Court (SC). The selection of candidates was carried out on a clan (family) basis, the protestors say.

A bus driver from Ingushetia was fined and released after a conflict with law enforcers at the "Chermen" checkpoint, the Ingush Ministry for National Affairs reported. Checkpoints at the border between the republics of Northern Caucasus complicate international relations, believes human rights defender Magomed Mutsolgov.

The statement about pressure on the advocate, Nemat Kerimli, in the colony, where his client journalist, Afghan Mukhtarly, is kept, caused doubts, the Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service has reported. The Kerimli's arguments were not confirmed preliminarily, the Bar Association has stated. The advocate himself treats the reaction to his appeal as biased.

Akhsan Nuruzade, an activist of the "Muslim Unity" movement, was placed into dungeon (punishment cell) after talking to inmates on the Ganja case in the colony. The colony staff is trying to limit contacts of political prisoners, said Ogtai Gyulyalyev, a rights defender.

Martin Kochesoko, the head of the Circassian public organization "Khabze", has demanded to criminally prosecute the law enforcers who detained him on charges of drug dealing. The activist claims that the drugs were planted on him, while his defence insists on the political background of his case.

Makhi Idrisov, who boasted in a social network of his friendship with Ramzan Kadyrov, was placed under house arrest for a month within the case of illegal arms dealing.

Afghan Mukhtarly, a journalist convicted in Azerbaijan, who went on a hunger strike in protest against pressure on his advocate, was placed into a dungeon (punishment cell), his wife has informed.

After his one-day visit to Grozny, Frank Schwabe, the Rapporteur of the PACE on human rights in Northern Caucasus, has admitted that the realities demonstrated to him by Chechen authorities contradicted the reports of human rights defenders on human rights violations in the republic, but promised to draw up an objective report for the Council of Europe.

The North-Caucasian Military Court has found Timur Albakov guilty of preparing a terror act and an attempt to join the "Islamic State" (IS, formerly, the ISIL), a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, and sentenced him to 10 years in colony.

Law enforcers did not let Tapdyg Farkhadoglu, a correspondent of the Voice of America (VOA), to cover a protest rally in Baku, and after his detention, he was advised against shooting any more "against statehood," the journalist himself reported. His colleagues treated the incident as pressure on freedom of speech.

The President of Russia instructed the Minister of Defence to sign an agreement proposed by the Russian government with Abkhazia on financing the costs of modernizing the armed forces of the republic.