News

In Maikop, a court sentenced Nikolai Voischev, a 68-year-old member of the Jehovah’s Witness* religious community, to three years of imprisonment, recognizing him an organizer of the activities of an extremist organization.

In Novocherkassk, a court declared the trial in a case against Jehovah’s Witnesses* Garegin Khachaturyan, Gevorg Yeritsyan, and Lyubov Galitsyna, accused of extremism, to be held behind closed doors. The period of their detention in custody has been extended by six months.

The dissenting opinion issued by Judge Rizvan Zubairov, in which he criticized the sentence passed to the "Chernovik" journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev, Abubakar Rizvanov, the head of the "Ansar" Fund, and Kemal Tambiev, an activist, may become the basis for their acquittal.

The Khosta District Court of the Krasnodar Territory (also known as Kuban by the name of the main river) has fined Evgeny Salnikov by 2000 roubles for his post placed in the "VKontakte" social network about a Ukrainian organization banned in Russia.

Ramzan Kadyrov has released a video of his visit to a Moscow hospital. The leader of Chechnya has explained that his uncle is being treated there, while he himself “is alive and healthy.”

Batyr Zhaboev from Nalchik, charged under the criminal article on discrediting the Russian Army after his posts in a social network, has been sentenced to a year of conditional imprisonment.

The "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence has announced Yasin Khalidov, a former Chechen policeman and OMON (riot police) fighter, to be a political prisoner.

The Kremlin will find a replacement for Ramzan Kadyrov as the leader of Chechnya, human rights defender Oyub Titiev believes. The redistribution of power may lead to a conflict between the groups headed by Adam Delimkhanov, Magomed Daudov, and Abuzaid Vismuradov, suggests Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations.

The verdict to Madina Kabaloeva for evading service is the first of its kind in Russia, but this is not a systematic approach, but a performers' excessive action, Valentina Melnikova, the head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, believes.

Dagestani authorities would not react to residents' requests to move the construction of the landfill from the Sarykum Dune; and it is impossible to get an appointment with Sergey Melikov about this. The father of two sons who perished in the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine has stated this in a video appeal addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Verdict in Rostov-on-Don, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, elections in Russia, blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, Zarema Musaeva’s case, 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 September 11-17, 2023, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on a complaint filed by Svetlana Anokhina and Maisarat Kilyaskhanova, against whom law enforcers used force in a shelter, should remind the authorities of Russia that the problem of the safety of shelters, especially in Northern Caucasus, has not been resolved, believe members of NGOs.

Residents of the village of Mutsalaul, Khasavyurt District, who had asked to be allocated the land plots due to them by the law, refused refusals, while authorities drew up a new general plan, in which land was allocated only for social facilities.

The prosecutor has demanded to sentence Alexander Nozdrinov, a journalist from Krasnodar, accused of spreading fakes about the Russian Army, to nine years in colony. None of those who came to support the journalist were allowed into the courtroom.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has upheld the verdict of the first-instance court, which had found Corporal Madina Kabaloeva from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), guilty of failure to appear for her military service.

The prosecutor has offered to commute Musaeva's sentence due to her state of health and the injustice of the sentence passed by the first-instance court. After sentence mitigation, Musaeva has every reason to ask for the conditional early relief (CER), Natalia Dobronravova, an advocate, believes.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which recognized the Derbent residents, Islam Barzukaev and Gasan Kurbanov, as victims of torture, will not affect the outcome of the consideration of the appeal complaint, since Russia is no longer a party to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the convicts' advocate has indicated.

The information of Ramazan Gadjiev, a prisoner from Dagestan, about torture in the Mordovian colony was not confirmed, the Prosecutor's Office (PO) has reported. The Ombudsperson for Mordovia, during his meeting with Gadjiev, also found no violations of any of the prisoner's rights.

At the trial, the defence witnesses have recalled the role of Oleg Orlov and of the "Memorial" he heads in the case of the Gasanguseinov brothers killed by law enforcers in Dagestan, and his work during the military campaigns in Chechnya.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) obliged the authorities of Russia to pay 26,000 euros to Temirkhan Amakhanov, a resident of Derbent, recognizing him as a victim of torture by law enforcers. The ECtHR’s decision was pronounced against the backdrop of the Russia’s refusal to implement the decisions of the Strasbourg Court.