News

By voicing out the data on the federal financing of Chechnya, its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has correctly indicated only the volume of inter-budgetary transfers, Natalia Zubarevich, an economist, has explained.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has expressed its concern about the legal insecurity and harassment of people of non-traditional sexual orientation in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Forced migrants have held a rally in Yerevan, demanding from the Armenian authorities to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state and grant them the refugee status.

Law enforcers have kidnapped Adam Khamchiev, a blogger and a member of the "Civil Initiative" Party, from his flat in the city of Magas, his fellow party members have reported.

Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, has sent a letter to the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliev, urging him not to sign the law "On Media" recently adopted by the parliament and return it for revision. According to Ms Mijatović, the new law is contrary to the principles of the freedom and independence of the media.

A video with insults against men who failed to help girls in Grozny in carrying heavy boxes sparked a negative reaction of Instagram users. Soon the author of the video has apologized, saying that she had received threats.

Threats and blackmail were an attempt to force blogger Khasan Khalitov to stop criticizing the Chechen authorities, since the goal was not achieved through the kidnapping of his relatives, human rights defenders explained. They suggested that officials from the Chechen authorities were involved in the kidnappings and blackmail of the Ramzan Kadyrov’s opponents.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the protection of the rights of LGBT people in Europe, with the focus on persecution based on sexual orientation in Chechnya. The PACE requested the authorities of Russia to protect the victims and punish the perpetrators.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya refused to consider arguments presented by advocates of brothers Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isaev concerning the need to transfer their case for consideration to another region of Russia.

Members of the Estonian parliament nominated the “Memorial”* as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On January 26, in Strasbourg, fourteen organizations, including NGOs from Azerbaijan, announced the Campaign to Uphold Rights in Europe (CURE).

In Pyatigorsk, a court reduced the sentence of Malika Djikaeva, who was convicted in Chechnya in a drug case, from three to two years of imprisonment. Malika Djikaeva is to be released in March.

The relatives of the blogger, Khasan Khalitov, who live in Chechnya are restricted in their freedom of travel; his father was fired from his job; and his sister was forced to close her business, the blogger has informed.

A 38-year-old resident of the city of Izberbash have joined an international religious association, where he studied extremist ideology, investigators assert.

At detention, Zarema Musaeva was beaten up by law enforcers; and her husband, Saidi Yangulbaev, was subjected to a lengthy interrogation at the airport as he was leaving the country, Aliya Yangulbaeva, the daughter of the abducted woman, has reported.

The "Committee against Torture" (CaT)* has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the interests of Rustam Kuchmenov, a citizen of Nalchik, who accuses law enforcers of torturing him.

Eduard Ataev, a Dagestani activist, who has spent the night at the police station after his picket, has explained that the aim of his regular pickets in Makhachkala to stop illegal mining in the territory of the dwelling settlement of Endirey. Ataev also demands to suppress corruption in the Khasavyurt District.

Abdul-Malik Albogachiev, a native of Ingushetia, who is serving his term in an Astrakhan colony, was never given the family Koran; and the colony bosses insist on his transfer to a barrack with the inmates who are in conflict with him, Zarema Barakhoeva and Pyatimat Yusupova, rights defenders, have informed.

Human rights defender Abubakar Yangulbaev responded from Georgia to the leader of Chechnya to accusations that the Yangulbaev family allegedly supported terrorism. Abubakar Yangulbaev called the kidnapping of his elderly mother by Chechen law enforcers an act of terrorism.

According to the court’s decision, Ashot Minasyan, a participant in three Karabakh wars, accused of illegal possession of firearms, will be released after bail is paid. Ashot Minasyan pleads not guilty.