News

The appellate instance has upheld the ruling to place Irina Skorovarova, a resident of Taganrog, under house arrest; she is accused within a criminal case of discrediting the Russian Army. This was reported by the human rights project "OVD-Info"* with reference to Sergey Kovalevich, Irina's advocate.

In the penal colony, where she is kept, Darya Polyudova is subject to pressure from the administration and other prisoners; one of cellmates had beaten her up, human rights defenders have reported, announcing fundraising aimed at legal help to Darya.

In Pyatigorsk, the garrison military court has sentenced a military serviceman to six years in penal colony for his three-month absence from his military unit.

Public prosecutors have submitted to a court in Grozny, as evidence of guilt, the results of a forensic psychiatric examination that found Nikita Zhuravel, a resident of Volgograd, accused of burning the Koran, mentally healthy.

Authorities are responsible for the inefficient investigation of journalists' murders; the atmosphere of impunity gives a free hand to those who disagree with sharp journalistic publications, Galina Arapova*, a lawyer, has commented on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the claims lodged by relatives of the murdered journalists, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev and Khadjimurad Kamalov.

The Volgograd Regional Court has upheld the sentence of three pensioners, members of the Volzhsky branch of the "Russia's Security Committee", convicted to three years of freedom deprivation each within the case of taking part in an extremist community.

The investigator has announced the completion of the re-investigation in the case of Oleg Orlov; and the motives of hatred and enmity have been added to the imputed charges of discrediting the Russian Army.

A criminal case against Viktor Pivovarov, Archbishop of the Slavyansk-on-Kuban and South Russian Russia’s Orthodox Church, has been submitted to the Slavyansk-on-Kuban City Court for consideration.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg recognized a violation of the right to life and obliged Russia to pay compensation of 26,000 euros to relatives of Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent in Dagestan, who was shot dead in 2013.

The "Rosfinmonitoring" (Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service) has included Sofia Angel-Barokko, a female blogger from Maykop (the capital of Adygea), accused of insulting believers' feelings and justifying terrorism, into the list of extremists and terrorists.

A court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Alexander Lyakh, a former deputy head of the tuberculosis hospital of the FSIN (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service), to 7.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of organizing patients' torture.

The situation with women's rights defence in the republics of Northern Caucasus is deteriorating, the participants of the conference "New trends in domestic violence situation in Northern Caucasus" have noted, especially stressing Ingushetia in this regard.

The administration of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Krasnodar denies a medical examination of Sofya Angel-Barokko, a blogger from Maikop, who suffers from asthma and who has been arrested in the case on insulting the feelings of believers and justifying terrorism.

Journalist Idris Yusupov* traditionally went out on a solo picket in support of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, but the police interfered with the protest action three times until it had to be stopped, since another man unfolded a similar poster next to the picketer.

Information about labour slavery of a Belarusian resident at a brick factory located in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk has been confirmed, and a criminal investigation has been launched, investigators report.

Repressions in Azerbaijan and conflict with PACE, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, missing people, student unrest in Georgia, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 22-28, 2024, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

A 59-year-old resident of Nalchik, the mother of a famous female athlete, is seeking guardianship over her seven-year-old grandson after her daughter's death. Psychologists and witnesses gave written testimonies that the boy was afraid of his father and complained of beatings and sexual violence. Despite this, the court refused to hand the child over to his grandmother.

A court in Maykop has sentenced Vladimir Litenkov, a military service man from the Krasnodar Territory (also known as Kuban), to five years in a penal colony, finding him guilty of leaving his unit without permission.

A court has sentenced the 72-year-old Evgenia Maiboroda to 5.5 years in penal colony, finding her reposts placed in a social network as fakes about the Russian Army and calls for extremism.

The contractor has suspended building a school in the village of Shinaz because of the discovery of a historical burial ground. Authorities refused the contractor to extend the construction term and abandoned the contract; it follows from the information on the government procurement website and the file of arbitration cases.