News

A court in Strasbourg has sentenced a native of Chechnya to 15 months in custody, finding him guilty of promoting terrorism due to his videos and songs of the “Islamic State” (IS)* posted n social networks.

Additional police forces have been deployed to the streets of Makhachkala following calls for a rally posted online, and several streets have been cordoned off, sources report.

Most of those accused in criminal cases for participation in mass riots at an airport in Makhachkala have had their arrest periods extended until the end of March, while almost no investigative actions are being carried out, and a number of the arrestees are banned from being visited by their relatives and friends.

Advocate Alexander Nemov, who was beaten in Chechnya, requested Alexander Bastrykin, the chair of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), to transfer the case on the attack to another region.

A court sentenced Kureish Timurziev to seven years of imprisonment for inflicting several knife wounds to his wife Nata Matieva, the head of the “Good People Club” charity foundation, because of her desire to get a divorce.

In Rostov-on-Don, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Vladimir Udovik to imprisonment under the article on participation in a terrorist community, recognizing him as a shooter of the Ukrainian “Aidar” battalion*.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has found no elements of the crime in the threats that advocate Tatiana Solomina received from a mother of her client from Chechnya. Investigators have refused to institute a criminal case. Tatiana Solomina intends to file an appeal against the ICRF’s decision.

Although the proposal to introduce Arabic into the school curriculum is politically motivated, it will be received positively in the republics of Northern Caucasus, where many parents of schoolchildren want their children to study Arabic.

In London, a court arrested Magomed-Khusein Dovtaev, a native of Chechnya, finding him guilty of attempting to collect information for a subsequent attack on employees of the “Iran International” opposition TV Channel. The native of Chechnya states that he had been “put under fire.”

In Dagestan, a court sentenced Stavropol residents Arifulla Avezov and Akhmet Terekbaev to 14 years of imprisonment, recognizing them as participants in an armed attack of the militant groupings led by Basaev and Khattab on the republic in 1999.

The prosecutor’s office issued a complaint to the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of Dagestan due to the untimely provision of people with disabilities with the rehabilitation means to be provided to them under the law, the “Patient Monitor” human rights organization reported.

Investigators instituted a criminal case on falsification of a police protocol against district police inspector Yevgeny Samonov, accused of beating Kuban resident Fyodor Valko and forgery.

Leaving a military unit without permission by a mobilized man is regarded as a crime, and there is a tendency towards tougher punishment. When commenting on the sentence of mobilized Adam Ivanov, convicted by a military court in Nalchik for leaving his military unit without permission, human rights defenders have noted that courts more often sentence deserters to five or more years of imprisonment.

Advocate Alexander Nemov, who was beaten in Chechnya, considered it unsafe for him to go there to testify in his case, reported Henry Reznik, the head of the lawyer’s commission. According to him, colleagues of Alexander Nemov have no illusions that the crime will be solved soon.

In Sochi, a court sentenced mobilized Maxim Sukhobrus to seven years of imprisonment, finding him guilty of leaving without permission a military unit in the special military operation zone and desertion.

Ali Bataev, a native of Chechnya, who was facing deportation from Switzerland to his homeland, has been released from the deportation centre, human rights defenders have informed.

At a court session in Grozny, the last three of the 13 imams recognized as the suffered party in the case of the burning of the Koran by Nikita Zhuravel, a Volgograd resident, were interrogated. One of the Imams has stated that Zhuravel's act caused him moral harm.

Authors of the appeal in defence of the scientists of the Institute for Humanitarian Research sent it to the leader and the government of Kabardino-Balkaria, the republic’s Investigating Department of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) and the prosecutor’s office, but received no response from all the above-mentioned institutions.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensations to the following activists from Rostov-on-Don: Olesya Bakhtiyarova, Konstantin Maklyak and Maxim Murugin; to activists from Volgograd, Vladimir Lygin and Vladimir Doronin; and Oleg Ivanov, an activist from Stavropol.

The prosecution of Vasily Melnikov, a resident of the Kotelnikovsky District, on charges of spreading fake news about the Russian Army is unlawful and politically motivated. This was stated by the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial", demanding to release the arrested man.