News

Today, in five cities of Georgia, employees of the Social Security Agency have refused to go to work. They demand from the Ministry for Public Health to improve their working conditions. Human rights defenders have called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to verify the information about the threats of dismissal for social workers on strike.

Positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces in the Karabakh conflict zone, including in a border village, has been shelled 22 times a day, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reports today.

Conviction of Chechen rights defender Oyub Titiev; change of the leader of the main oppositional force and NATO exercises in Georgia, – read about these and other events in the Caucasus that occurred from March 18 to March 24, 2019, in the weekly review prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The commemorative events were held on March 24 in the city of Mineralnye Vody (Minvody) on the anniversary of the terror act committed in 2001.

A brother of Said Barkinkhoev, a 27-year-old resident of Ingushetia, detained on suspicion of robbery, claimed he had been tortured. Visit Tsoroev, an advocate of the detainee, said that he had fixed traces of torture on his client.

Ayub Tuntuev, a former security of the Chechen leader, who was found dead in a colony, has been buried into the clan cemetery. Relatives found bruises on his body, while examination established the absence of kidneys and a lung in Tuntuev's body.

The Ukrainian citizen Pavel Grib, convicted for incitement to a terror act in a Sochi school, demanded to undergo a medical examination in the presence of independent experts and the Ukrainian Ombudsperson, Leonid Petrashis, the head of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) of the Rostov Region, who has visited Grib at the SIZO (pre-trial prison), has announced.

In Grozny, about 4000 people took part in the march on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the Chechen Constitution, the city authorities have announced. However, the marchers themselves complained about their forced participation in the event.

After the pardoning, Azerbaijani jails still keep 87 political prisoners, the study of the Union "For the Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" asserts. Rights defenders have called on the authorities to release political prisoners and stop the practice of criminal prosecution of citizens on politically motivated charges.

Pavel Grib, convicted on charges of incitement to terror act, should be released, the external relations service of the European Union has stated. Jeremy Hunt, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has pointed to the political background of the persecution of the Ukrainian citizen.

The appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerns the fact that the complaint against the refusal to release Robert Kocharyan from December 2018 has not been accepted yet, the advocate, Ayk Alumyan, has stated. According to his story, this is the fifth complaint submitted to the ECtHR.

Despite the decrease of the terrorist threat, the likelihood of new attacks undertaken by single terrorists persists in Dagestan, journalists and political analysts have stated.

In a street of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, seven activists of the initiative "In Name of Justice" repainted red marking lines of a car park into purple in protesting against toll car parks in the city.

Anar Djabbarov, an activist of the "Muslim Unity" Movement (MUM), detained in Turkey, was brought to Baku. Rights defenders associate the persecution of Djabbarov with the conflict in Nardaran.

Sandra Roelofs, the wife of the third Georgian president, will run for the Mayor of the city of Zugdidi at the interim election on May 19. Ms Roelofs has great chances to win, although the struggle at the Zugdidi election will be tough, political analysts believe.

The court judgement to reinstate Zarifa Sautieva at work, after she was dismissed for taking part in protests against the agreement on Ingush-Chechen border, is fair, social network users believe. Zarifa, who associated her dismissal with political motives, plans to go to work on March 25.

Members of the Canadian Parliament have united into a friendship group with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) under the leadership of Rachel Harder, a member of the House of Commons of the Kingdom.

Zhalaudi Geriev, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, was placed for 15 days into the dungeon (punishment cell) of the colony, where he is serving his sentence. In this way, the bosses of the Chechen colony have punished Geriev for his refusal to go out of his cell due to health problems.

The court reinstated Zarifa Sautieva, dismissed after participating in protests against the agreement on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya. The activist's dismissal is of political nature, notes Timur Akiev, the head of the of Human Rights Centre "Memorial" office in Ingushetia.

The Public Oversight Commission (POC) of Mordovia began an inspection in a penal colony where prisoners injured themselves in protest. Former prisoners from Chechnya reported about the problems in the penal colony, while the chiefs of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) Department called the action an attempt of blackmail.