News

Two thirds of the funds needed to help Zarema Musaeva with medical treatment have been raised within two weeks. Some of the vital medicines have already been handed over to the political prisoner.

Law enforcers are entitled to conduct prophylactic conversations, but these are purely voluntary, while refusing to identify oneself and take photos and videos is a violation of the right to privacy, as well as an abuse of power. This is how lawyers have commented on the visit of Dagestani law enforcers to relatives of convicted Abubakar Rizvanov.

Olga Asanova, an advocate for Anna Safronova, a Jehovah's Witness*, imprisoned in a Stavropol colony, has informed the Prosecutor's Office about the torture of her client for refusing to wear a Saint George ribbon. This case fits into the general trend of tougher treatment of the convicts professing this religion, Yaroslav Sivulsky, a member of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses*, has stated.

Ramzan Kadyrov has called on the people who live in Grozny but are registered in other Chechen dwelling settlements to get registered in the republic's capital. The meaning of Kadyrov's call is unclear, but entities have already received instructions on the need for employees thereof to get registered, commentators have noted.

Adam Kadyrov's new position is a test of his fitness to take over the republic’s leadership after his father, while the post of curator of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) presupposes titles and competencies that Ramzan Kadyrov's 17-year-old son does not possess.

On the third day of his hunger strike, the health condition of Tofig Yagublu, an Azerbaijani oppositionist, sentenced to nine years in prison, has worsened, but he rejected his advocates' offer to stop his hunger strike.

The public apologies of begging women were unlikely voluntary; therefore, they will not affect the situation with begging in streets, an Ingush journalist and a public figure assert.

Families of oppositionists arrested in connection with participation in pro-European protest actions have united in a public movement to demand the release of prisoners of conscience. The activists plan to start a 24-hour protest action in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi.

Two men came to the house of the parents of Abubakar Rizvanov, who was sentenced to imprisonment in a case on terrorism financing, and demanded the information about the place of residence of his children. A sister of Abubakar Rizvanov regarded the constant visits by law enforcers as pressure and demanded an answer about the legality of their actions.

In Chechnya, a court questioned Zarema Musaeva in a case on disruption of the activities of a penal colony. The version of physical harm inflicted to a penal colony employee is a pre-planned fabrication and revenge, Zarema Musaeva claims.

The initiation of a criminal case against Vladislav Poruchikov, a student from Taganrog, was preceded by a series of arrests, and the convict himself has reported pressure and torture.

In Magas, a court dismissed a complaint filed by Albert Khamkhoev about the suspension of a criminal case on his torture. According to the human rights defenders’ information, the criminal case has already been suspended 19 times.

The appellate court has refused to change the sentence passed to Alexei Schus, a Sochi engineer, convicted on charges of spreading fake news about the Russian Army and making a slingshot.

The law enforcers guilty of the death of Kurban Dalgatov, a Makhachkala resident, are trying in every way to avoid punishment, while the judges are following their lead, the mother of Kurban, who died after being tortured by the police. The trial of Dalgatov's death case will continue on April 30 this year.

The 17-year-old son of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, became the curator of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

Ismail Nalgiev, an Ingush activist, has served his full sentence within the case of an extremist community and was released from a colony located in the Stavropol Territory.

During the raids conducted in the Ingush city of Nazran, law enforcers have detained three women in Muslim clothing who were begging for alms and forced them to record apologies.

In the Stavropol penal colony, convicted Jehovah’s Witness* Anna Safronova from Astrakhan is being sent to a punishment cell for long terms and forced to stand on her feet during 10-13 hours.

Sergey Yanovsky, an advocate of Jehovah’s Witness* Valery Bailo, who died in a SIZO (pre-trial prison), believes that the Public Oversight Commission (POC) fulfilled its duties in a formal way and that no assistance was provided to his client. A representative of the POC reported that deceased Valery Bailo complained of an acute toothache.

In the third reading, members of the Georgian Parliament have adopted the “Act on the Registration of Foreign Agents” which introduces the concept of individuals-foreign agents.