News

The Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Religious Associations has started mass inspections against local fortune-tellers. Women are subjected to interrogations and are warned for involvement in illegal activities.

In Chechnya, the court has found Islam Saidulaev, a local resident, guilty of attempting to join in Syria the ranks of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia by court, and sentenced him to 3.5 years of imprisonment.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) and Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners" have called on the Baku officials to immediately release three arrested activists of the movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl), including Natiq Jafarli, Elshan Gasymov, and Togrul Ismail, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

All the visitors of the fitness gym "Premium" in Makhachkala, detained on August 15 during a raid conducted by power agents, have been released after filling in questionnaires and check of documents.

In the evening on August 15, Elshan Gasymov and Togrul Ismail, two activists of movement ReAl (Real Alternative), were arrested by policemen in Baku. They both are authorized representatives of the ReAl initiative group for referendum on amendments to the Constitution.

Supporters of the Chechen preacher Shoip Tutaev will not turn away from him, because of the fact that he had to abandon his views and repent to Ramzan Kadyrov, the experts on the Caucasus, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", believe, adding that the authorities have achieved what they had wanted, and Tutaev will have to stop his public activities.

The topic of female genital cutting (circumcision), raised by rights defenders, should be discussed by a narrow circle of experts, said Anita Soboleva, a member of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the President of Russia.

A collapse of a part of the wall of the one-storey building of the division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) took place in Marshal Zhukov Street in the city of Armavir. No one was injured.

In the town of Maisky, while searching a garage belonging to a local resident, policemen discovered a workshop with equipment to transform gas pistols into traumatic ones. The criminal case was instituted against the owner of the garage on the charge of illicit manufacture of weapons.

Khizir Likhov, killed in Kabardino-Balkaria on August 14, was previously twice treated as killed in two special operations carried out in summer of 2015 and in January 2016. However, in both cases, it turned out after the identification that other men were killed. This was learned by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from a source of the Department for the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

On August 15, natives of Northern and Southern Caucasus won six medals at the Olympic Games in Brazil. Three medals were won by athletes of the Russian national team, and each of the national teams of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Belarus won one medal.

The court has pronounced the decision to detain a 54-year-old resident of Astrakhan, suspected of aiding and abetting the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia by court.

According to policemen, in the evening of August 16, they detained visitors of a gym to check their IDs. This is not the first police raid around gyms in the city, the "Chernovik" (Draft) reports. Earlier, according to the edition, the police have explained similar raids by the fact that gyms were visited mainly by men with beards.

Elgiz Gakhramanov, an activist of the Movement "Nida" (Shout), has been arrested on charges of drug dealing. His companions believe that he was arrested for political reasons.

Dagestan preserves the practice of traditional girls' genital cuttings (circumcision), performed with the support of the official clergy and considered by the population as their religious duty, says the study released by the "Legal Initiative for Russia" (LIfR) today on its website.

The Baku Court of Appeal (CoA) has dismissed the complaint lodged by journalist Khadija Ismayilova against the court judgement, prohibiting her to leave Azerbaijan.

The court has sentenced Khomgot and Psabyda Evgamukov, accused of killing Mukhamed Kunizhev, an MP of the National Assembly of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) to 12 and 7 years, accordingly, in a high-security colony.

On August 12-14, athletes from Southern Russia and Southern Caucasus won three gold and three bronze medals at Olympics-2016 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

Successes of natives of the Caucasus at Olympics in Brazil; registration of candidates for the State Duma in Southern Russia; two special operations in districts of Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of August 8-14, 2016, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

During the week of August 8-14, 2016, 11 persons were killed in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. No wounded were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.