News

The Strasbourg Court found the Russian authorities responsible for the unlawful detention and death of 17-year-old Magomed Gorchkhanov and obliged them to pay 70,000 euros in compensation to Dibikhan Pugoeva, a resident of Ingushetia.

Members of the “Sasna Tsrer” (Daredevils of Sassoun) detachment were convicted groundlessly, said participants of a protest action held in front of the court building in Yerevan, where the appeal against the convicted person’s sentences was considered.

In her letter to the Russian Prosecutor General, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović notes that the use of the Russian law on foreign agents to liquidate the “Memorials”* NGOs (the International Historical, Educational, Charity and Human Rights Society “Memorial”* (International Memorial) and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* contradicts the European principles of human rights protection. The Council of Europe Commissioner has urged the Russian Prosecutor General to discontinue the liquidation proceedings against the human rights organizations.

Today, relatives of the people convicted in the “Terter case” have tried to hold a protest action in front of the administration of the President of Azerbaijan. They demanded to review the charges against the convicts. However, the police stopped the protest action.

In his video appeal, the head of the Chechen community in Norilsk has announced serious inconsistencies in a case against Apti Visaev, a native of Chechnya, accused of plotting a terror act in Norilsk.

The film "Unclenching the Fists" directed by Kira Kovalenko and filmed in North Ossetia was put on the long list of films nominated for the Oscar in the category "Best Foreign Film".

The Russian Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC) has conducted a polling of the prisoners who had earlier complained about torture at the Regional Tuberculosis Hospital (known as OTB-1) of the Saratov Regional Branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN); and they confirmed their testimonies about mass violence.

The picketers have demanded to release the journalist, Abdulmumin Gadjiev, and all political prisoners, as well as to stop arresting people without proofs.

Residents of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) have supported the letter of the initiative group against compulsory vaccination, the introduction of QR codes and other restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. They stressed that such decisions should be made after extensive public discussions.

On December 6, the advocates of Salekh Rustamov, an activist, submitted their motion to the court demanding to set him free for health reasons; Salekh has been on his protest hunger strike at the prison hospital for the 31 days already.

The video messages with brothers and the father of the blogger, Khasan Khalitov, who is living in Turkey, were made under pressure; and Chechen authorities are using the family to intimidate their critics, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

The criminal prosecution of Ingush activists within the case of the extremist community was ordered and falsified, one of the defendants, Malsag Uzhakhov, said in his last plea.

Farmer Zakarya Nabiev said that he was preparing to continue his hunger strike until the authorities of the Shamil District fulfilled their promise to conclude a lease agreement with him. However, on December 3, the famer had to end his protest action due to the need to graze goats far in the mountains.

The European Union (EU) has prolonged for another year the sanctions for violations of human rights around the world, including the sanctions imposed on Abuzaid Vismuradov, the deputy chair of the Chechen government, supervising the law enforcement bloc, and former Argun police chief Ayub Kataev.

Voting of MPs in Southern Russia for a bill on QR codes amid protests; death of 14 soldiers in a helicopter crash in Azerbaijan; dispersal of the protest action of Mikhail Saakashvili’s supporters in Tbilisi by the police, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of November 29-December 5, 2021, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

According to a report released on December 4 by the “Grozny” state-run TV Channel, the capital of Chechnya hosted large-scale antiterrorist exercises of the police and the National Guard of Russia.

Today, Vladimir Osechkin, the head of the human rights project “Gulagu.net”, has reported that warders beat prisoners in a penal colony in the Primorsky Territory (Primorye), and after that Khusein Adakhanov, a native of Chechnya, who was serving his sentence in the penal colony, died. According to Vladimir Osechkin, as a result of a special operation by warders in the penal colony, about 150 prisoners were beaten, and other 16 people were severely injured.

During the week of November 29-December 5, 2021, no killed or wounded in the ongoing armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the “Caucasian Knot” based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Under unclear circumstances, a contract soldier, Gor Martirosyan, received a fatal gunshot wound, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh has reported.

Ali Kerimli, the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) has urged Azerbaijani authorities not to delay the release of Salekh Rustamov, who has been on his protest hunger strike in the prison hospital for 30 days already.