News

Prior to the fire in the office, some Chechen rights defenders had been deliberately spreading false information about the activities of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and inflating the situation, said Igor Kalyapin, the head of the CaT.

Relatives of Pakhrudin Magomedov, a missing resident of the Dagestani village of Tyube, have found his body in the morgue of the city of Kizilyurt, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported.

Murad Zalitinov, a former head of the Kadar unit of "Imarat Kavkaz", was killed on December 12 in a special operation in Dagestan, said the press service of the Russian FSB.

The preliminary investigation into the criminal case of Rasul Djafarov, the coordinator of the campaign "Arts for Democracy", is over in Azerbaijan. After the rights defender gets acquainted with the indictment, the case will go to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

Magomed Aliev, a student, suspected of promoting terrorism, has been transferred from the intensive care unit to the neurosurgery ward of the Stavropol City Hospital No. 4. His relatives have appealed to the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) stating the misconduct of local investigators.

In Azerbaijan, Intigam Aliev, the head of the NGO "Legal Education Society", was presented a new charge – under the article of a large-scale embezzlement, under which he is under a threat of up to 12 years in prison.

The Dagestani lawyers Sapiyat Magomedova and Musa Suslanov receive threats associated with their activities, said the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) and invited to sign an appeal for their defence.

Burned down houses of militants' relatives in Chechnya; condemnation by Russian rights defenders of principle of collective responsibility, and the subsequent incidents with them in Grozny; end of hunger strike in Dagestan demanding to restore Tarki District; Geneva discussions on safety in Southern Caucasus; attacks on oppositionactivists in Armenia; next humanitarian convoy from Russia to Donbas; special operations in Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, during which nine suspected militants were killed, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of December 8-14, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (CE) has issued a positive opinion on the amendments passed in Azerbaijan to the law "On Non-Governmental Organizations", said Tatiana Baeva, the spokesperson for the commission.

Employees of the Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have stood up for the Chechen Committee against Torture (CaT), indicating the damage of CaT's property and attempts to put pressure on rights defenders.

Djamal Makhmudov, a native of Dagestan, disappeared in Stavropol after a search of his house. He is a figurant in the case of recruitment and financing the militants travelling to Syria, his relatives were told at the Centre to Combat Extremism.

During the week from December 8 to December 14, 2014, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus brought harm to at least 15 people; of them, 14 people were lost, and one was wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

In Azerbaijan, participants of protest actions in Baku intend to boycott the 2015 European Olympic Games, should the demands of their resolution be neglected, and the Azerbaijani authorities fail to release political prisoners, said Isa Gambar, the former leader of the "Musavat" Party and now the head of the "National Centre of Strategic Thought".

Policemen have searched lawyers of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and confiscated their mobile phones, cameras and laptops, rights defenders report.

The suspension of the radio station "Echo Moskvy-Makhachkala" is unjustified and politically motivated, said Zaur Gadjiev, the editor-in-chief of the radio, who believes that the actions of state structures are contrary to the law.

Mikhail Fedotov, the Chairman of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the President of the Russian Federation, has got involved in the situation around the staff of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of the Committee against Torture (CaT), acting in the territory of Chechnya.

The accusation of the 25-year-old citizen of Georgia Beslan Tsintsalashvili, who will face trial for an alleged persuasion of two residents of Chechnya to terrorist activities in the "Islamic State" grouping, is "very flimsy" and untrue, said Luiza Killaeva, the defendant's advocate.

A reform of the system of Islamic education was the major topic of debates at the International Islamic Forum held in Moscow. The issue was raised on setting up an academy to unite the existing Islamic Universities, said Khadjimurat Gatsalov, the Mufti of North Ossetia.

The ignition that occurred in the residential building in Grozny, where the office of the Joint Mobile Group of the Committee against Torture (CaT) is located, is liquidated, said the Chechen Ministry for Emergencies (MfE); nobody suffered.

The members of the mobile group of the Committee against Torture (CaT) of Chechnya, working in the republic, were followed by unidentified armed men, said a source from the committee.