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Construction workers are repairing the facade of the house in Grozny, which houses the burnt-out office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders. Local observers do not rule out that the fire in the office could be committed by people dissatisfied with their work.

The international human rights organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RWB) has published a report about the journalists, killed, kidnapped and jailed in 2014. Timur Kuashev, journalist and rights defender from Kabardino-Balkaria, is named as the only Russian reporter killed for professional reasons.

This year, Igor Tsagoev, a journalist from Nalchik, has been awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize "For Journalism as a Deed". The list of finalists comprised journalists from Volgograd and Makhachkala.

The family of Magomed Kamalov, a resident of Izberbash, who was killed on December 12 in the Kayakent District of Dagestan, has not yet received his body for burial, said one of Kamalov's relatives. The GOVD (City Interior Division) of Izberbash has clarified that the casualty was not on the wanted list.

Prior to the fire in the office, some Chechen rights defenders had been deliberately spreading false information about the activities of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and inflating the situation, said Igor Kalyapin, the head of the CaT.

Relatives of Pakhrudin Magomedov, a missing resident of the Dagestani village of Tyube, have found his body in the morgue of the city of Kizilyurt, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has reported.

Murad Zalitinov, a former head of the Kadar unit of "Imarat Kavkaz", was killed on December 12 in a special operation in Dagestan, said the press service of the Russian FSB.

The preliminary investigation into the criminal case of Rasul Djafarov, the coordinator of the campaign "Arts for Democracy", is over in Azerbaijan. After the rights defender gets acquainted with the indictment, the case will go to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

Magomed Aliev, a student, suspected of promoting terrorism, has been transferred from the intensive care unit to the neurosurgery ward of the Stavropol City Hospital No. 4. His relatives have appealed to the head of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) stating the misconduct of local investigators.

In Azerbaijan, Intigam Aliev, the head of the NGO "Legal Education Society", was presented a new charge – under the article of a large-scale embezzlement, under which he is under a threat of up to 12 years in prison.

The Dagestani lawyers Sapiyat Magomedova and Musa Suslanov receive threats associated with their activities, said the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) and invited to sign an appeal for their defence.

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (CE) has issued a positive opinion on the amendments passed in Azerbaijan to the law "On Non-Governmental Organizations", said Tatiana Baeva, the spokesperson for the commission.

Employees of the Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have stood up for the Chechen Committee against Torture (CaT), indicating the damage of CaT's property and attempts to put pressure on rights defenders.

Djamal Makhmudov, a native of Dagestan, disappeared in Stavropol after a search of his house. He is a figurant in the case of recruitment and financing the militants travelling to Syria, his relatives were told at the Centre to Combat Extremism.

During the week from December 8 to December 14, 2014, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus brought harm to at least 15 people; of them, 14 people were lost, and one was wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

In Azerbaijan, participants of protest actions in Baku intend to boycott the 2015 European Olympic Games, should the demands of their resolution be neglected, and the Azerbaijani authorities fail to release political prisoners, said Isa Gambar, the former leader of the "Musavat" Party and now the head of the "National Centre of Strategic Thought".

Policemen have searched lawyers of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and confiscated their mobile phones, cameras and laptops, rights defenders report.

The suspension of the radio station "Echo Moskvy-Makhachkala" is unjustified and politically motivated, said Zaur Gadjiev, the editor-in-chief of the radio, who believes that the actions of state structures are contrary to the law.

Mikhail Fedotov, the Chairman of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the President of the Russian Federation, has got involved in the situation around the staff of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of the Committee against Torture (CaT), acting in the territory of Chechnya.

The accusation of the 25-year-old citizen of Georgia Beslan Tsintsalashvili, who will face trial for an alleged persuasion of two residents of Chechnya to terrorist activities in the "Islamic State" grouping, is "very flimsy" and untrue, said Luiza Killaeva, the defendant's advocate.