News

Azerbaijan is witnessing suppression of civil society and opposition, directly connected with the referendum on amending the Constitution, said the International Foundation "Human Rights House", calling on the authorities to "stop intimidating the opposition."

This morning, in Saint Petersburg, in a multi-storey apartment house No. 92, building 3, in Leninsky Avenue, law enforcers launched a special operation to detain militants from Northern Caucasus. This was reported by a FSB official. Eyewitnesses reported on shooting in the area of the security operation. It has been already reported on a wounded special forces fighter.

On August 16, natives of Northern and Southern Caucasus won eight medals at the Olympic Games in Brazil. Each of the national teams of Georgia and Armenia won three medals, while athletes from Azerbaijan won three medals.

Today, in the Buinaksk and Karabudakhkent Districts of Dagestan, law enforcers have started a special operation to search for militants and their accomplices. This has been reported by the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC).

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.