News

The results of the recent medical tests which Mikhail Saakashvili underwent refute the assertions of the penitentiary service which claims the stable health state of the hunger-strike, and the vital signs of the former Georgian president have reached a critical level, his advocate report.

More than 1000 people gathered in the capital of Abkhazia to protest against the reinstatement of Dmitry Dbar as Minister of Internal Affairs. The protesters ignored the refusal of the Sukhumi Mayoralty to approve the rally.

A court arrested Ramiz Djafarov, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, for 25 days on the charge of failure to obey legal requests of the police. Party colleagues of the activist consider the charge against him politically motivated.

Yerevan protesters from among relatives of the dead and missing Armenian soldiers have achieved a meeting with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan. They said that at the meeting appointed for October 6, they would demand to reveal the exact number of prisoners of war (POWs), and a report on the progress of the investigation.

The National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia will fail to endure efficient investigation of torture cases, Ara Karagezyan, a lawyer, has suggested. For proper inquiry into these cases, a separate agency is needed, Nina Karapetyants, a human rights defender, believes.

Eli, a Ramzan Kadyrov's son, has defeated his opponent at the "Time of Legends-7" boxing tournament held in Grozny. His victory was predictable, his rival has succumbed, social network users have suggested.

The advocate of Agil Gumbatov, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), has demanded to remove the judge, since Agil's relatives, journalists and human rights defenders were again not allowed to the court session. However, the court has rejected the adcvocate's motion. Gumbatov refused from his initial testimonies, claiming that he gave them under torture.

Participants of a protest action in front of the government building blocked traffic on the street in order to secure a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. However, the Prime Minister said he was very busy and refused to meet the protesters. The relatives of those killed and missing in action have threatened with more radical forms of protest if Nikol Pashinyan does not set a date for the meeting.

The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) did not grant a complaint against the arrest of Mutallim Orudjev, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. The activist denied the charge of drug trafficking and claimed that he had signed a confession under torture.

The growth of veneration for Joseph Stalin did not affect the official events dedicated to the deportation of the peoples of Northern Caucasus, concluded historians and the chairman of the Union of the Repressed Peoples of Russia after the Memorial Day in Karachay-Cherkessia.

Yan Sidorov and Vladislav Mordasov, convicted in a case on organizing mass riots in Rostov-on-Don, were released from penal colonies due to the expiration of their sentences.

After 33 days of his hunger strike, Mikheil (Mikhail) Saakashvili, a former President of Georgia, is in a weakened health condition. He experiences blood tension surges; and fluctuations of his body weight during the day indicate a kidney failure, Nikoloz Kipshidze, Saakashvili's doctor, asserts.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has obliged Russian authorities to pay Vladimir Ivanov, the head of the Gelendjik Human Rights Centre, convicted for 13 years in prison, a total of 7500 euros as a compensation for illegal wiretapping by FSB agents and beating up after arrest.

On November 5, the National Assembly (Parliament) of Azerbaijan will consider a bill on amnesty timed to the Victory Day in the 2020 autumn war, marked on November 8. The amnesty will cover more than 15,000 people, but will not cover political prisoners, human rights defenders have noted.

The educational conversation with relatives of the girls who took selfies on the balcony in Gudermes continued the trend of persecuting social network users for "inappropriate" behaviour, a political analyst believes. Some Instagram users have treated the release of the video with the girls as an intrusion into their privacy.

After Saudi Arabia has lifted a number of restrictions related to coronavirus, the Muslim believers, who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates or the CIS countries, are allowed to enter the kingdom for making a small Hajj, said Bulat Kurbanov, Director General of the "Marwa" Tour Hajj Company. The first air flight is scheduled for December 15.

Ambulance drivers in Yerevan have announced a strike demanding higher wages and complaining about a tight working schedule. Their bosses have referred to the pandemic as the reason for the high workload and called on the strikers to negotiate.

On the Remembrance Day of Deportation Victims, flowers were laid at memorials in the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR). The law on commemorating victims of political repressions, adopted in 2016, has brought no visible results in the republic, Kyady Haji Khalkechev, the chairman of the Congress of the Karachai people, has noted.

The story of Adam Gisaev, a native of Chechnya, who claimed torture in a SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Irkutsk, which provoked a complaint by the “Roskomnadzor” (the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media), is true, and such reports have been received from other convicts from prisons in the Irkutsk Region, human rights defenders note.

The remains of 11 people were handed over to Karabakh rescuers through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers.