News

No less than seven inmates kept at the Taganrog SIZO (pre-trial prison) are being tortured to extract confessions within the case of the riot at the Rostov SIZO; and Muslims are prohibited from practicing their religion.

The defence has convinced the court to interrogate an expert linguist at a hearing of the case of Alexei Schus, a Sochi engineer, accused of spreading fakes about the Russian Army. Alexei has complained to his advocate about the custody conditions at the SIZO (pre-trial prison).

Investigators have stopped the criminal prosecution of Ilyas Yakubov, a Chechen athlete, who signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) while at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) and departed to the special military operation (SMO) zone in Ukraine.

An attack on a car with fighters of the “Rosgvardia” (National Guard of Russia) in Chechnya was preceded by an attack on a policeman in the Achkhoi-Martanovsky District in February. The information about the attack on a police checkpoint in Gudermes in early October has not been officially confirmed.

A criminal case against blogger Yegor Guzenko, who criticized the Russian authorities and Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the “Akhmat” special forces, has been transferred to the Kirovsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory. The court hearing is scheduled for November 5.

A detainee is suspected of holding eighteen people in slavery at one of the farms in the Aksaisky District. The investigating department, where a confrontation with the victims was being prepared, was approached by members of a Roma community, who started a scuffle on the spot.

Human rights defenders have recognized Ukrainian military man Denis Muryga, who was sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years of imprisonment, as a political prisoner.

Investigators and the court refuse to release Pyotr Golovnyov, a 20-year-old disabled man, from the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Novocherkassk, despite his serious health condition and growing tumour, his advocate has stated, treating the charges against Golovnyov as falsified.

Vladimir Atamanchuk, an activist from Sochi, is serving a sentence within a slander case as a janitor at the hospital where he had worked as a doctor before retirement. A new case against Atamanchuk for contempt of the court will be heard on November 23.

Sergey Obodenko is serving his sentence in a penal colony located in the Volgograd Region. He suffers from multiple sclerosis, cannot move independently, and needs constant medical treatment, which, according to his wife and advocate, he is not receiving.

At trial, Dagestani journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev claimed that the first instance court considered the purchase of airline tickets for 16,000 roubles as financing terrorism and completely ignored the findings of the forensic examination.

Relatives of Makhachkala resident Kurban Dalgatov, who died at a police station after being detained, demanded to cancel the pre-trial agreement with one of the accused, Islam Atavov. At trial, the former law enforcer downplays his role in torturing Kurban Dalgatov, a lawyer presenting the interests of the deceased man’s family reports.

A native of Chechnya, Bashir Omarkhodjaev, has been charged with organizing an assassination attempt on Sherip Alikhadjiev, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Ingushetia, and Vasily Konovalov, a citizen of Ukraine, has been accused of attempting to murder Alikhadjiev.

The cassation instance has upheld the verdict to Aslambek Ezhaev, a Chechen book publisher, convicted of financing terrorism. The court found his defence's arguments and those put forward by the publisher himself about the signs of case fabrication as unconvincing.

Investigators convinced the court to extend the arrest of journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova, although there was no need for that, an advocate states.

In Saint Petersburg, activists posted leaflets dedicated to the search for Seda Suleimanova, who was kidnapped and taken to Chechnya.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found the complaints lodged by 107 individuals and organizations, including the "International Memorial"* and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*, to be justified, concluding that inclusion of them into the register of foreign agents has violated their right to the freedom of expression and the freedom of association.

When commenting on the cancellation of the sentence of policemen in a case on torture of a woman from Khasavyurt, human rights defenders have noted that cases when law enforcers are being punished for using torture have become rare. The victim complains that she still has health problems.

In Chechnya, a court postponed the consideration of the complaint lodged against the refusal to release Zarema Musaeva on conditional early relief (CER) because of her hospitalization, which the defence insisted on.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Ingushetia mitigated the sentence of former policemen Temirlan Yevloev and Khamzat Kotiev, convicted of accepting a bribe from relatives of Timur Derbichev.