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The investigator has closed the case of torturing four residents of Anapa after their detention, having decided that they tried to slander law enforcers. For 15 months of the inquiry, no suspects appeared in the case, the "Committee against Torture" (CaT) has noted.

Six members of the student movement "Restart Times" were charged with attempting to kidnap Narek Malyan, an opposition video blogger.

Law enforcers accused two activists of disobedience to policemen and another one  of occupying a land plot without permission. The other five participants of the rally in support of the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny were released without charges.

The parliament of the Italian Region of Lazio adopted a resolution recognizing the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

The case against Anar Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the website "Criminalaz", who was subjected to a suspended sentence, should be reviewed, believes the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Having pardoned the sentenced activists, the Azerbaijani authorities are "freeing up places in prisons" for new political prisoners, states the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS).

Alvi Karimov, the press secretary to the leader of Chechnya, and Djambulat Umarov, Chechen Minister for National Policy, declared the Oyub Titiev's sentence mitigated in comparison with the prosecutors' request the evidence that the Chechen leaders had not interfered in the trial. The authorities have achieved their goal: they have forced independent human rights organizations out of the region, residents of Chechnya believe.

Imam Makhmud Velitov, sentenced for justifying terrorism, is hospitalized, reports the Department for the Astrakhan Region of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN). Prison doctors are to decide whether the transfer of the prisoner to a civilian hospital is justified.

Givi Beruashvili, a resident of the Ditsi village on the border with South Ossetia, was released, the State Security Service of Georgia reported.

On March 18, the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia found the provision stipulating that internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Chechnya, who received monetary compensation, are not eligible to receive housing contradicts the basic law of the republic.

The sentencing of Oyub Titiev is directly connected to his human rights work, and the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny is to be released immediately, the European Union states.

Since March 18, the "Sasna Tsrer" Party is collecting signatures for the reunification of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) with Armenia. Supporters of the "Sasna Tsrer" believe that the unrecognized republic should join Armenia as a separate region.

The trial of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", held in Chechnya, has demonstrated all the evils of the Russian justice, Mary Struthers, Director of the Amnesty International (AI) for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

According to Caucasian traditions, a public insult entails a public apology. This was the comment of the ethnologist, Sergey Arutyunov, and the Orientalist, Akhmet Yarlykapov on the reaction of the head of Ramzan Kadyrov's security to the words of the Dagestan fighter, Rustam Kerimov.

The National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia has expressed its readiness to ensure Alvin Ibragimov, detained at the border with Azerbaijan, to meet his relatives, guaranteeing their safety. The detainee was operated on after receiving his wound and is in satisfactory condition, Arman Tatoyan, the Armenian Ombudsman, wrote on his Facebook.

The trial of Oyub Titiev was a great stress for the family, Yakub, a brother of the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", has stated. Yakub told about the pressure at the start of the trial.

The authorities are too slowly looking for the remains of Chechen residents who disappeared in 1995-2010, state their relatives. They have proposed to create a special group for exhumations.

The return of Nagorno-Karabakh to the negotiating table proceeds from the interests of the peaceful settlement of the conflict, and Azerbaijan will have to agree to participate in the talks, state Armenian political analysts.

In Baku, the court sentenced Anar Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the website "Criminalaz", to 5.5 years of conditional imprisonment. The journalist and his defence insisted on acquittal.

The Armenian Court of Appeal dismissed the claim of Robert Kocharyan, the second President of Armenia, to recognize him as a victim in a criminal case on wiretapping of phone conversations between the heads of the two law enforcement bodies. The defence announced appeals to the cassation instance and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The testimonies of the defence witnesses positively characterize Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Chechnya, but do not acquit him in possession of drugs, the court has decided. The human rights defender has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment.