News

January 22, 2025 23:09

• “Reporters Without Borders”: repression against journalists in Azerbaijan increases

  Ahead of the trial in a case against journalists of the “Abzas Media” online publication, the “Reporters Without Borders” human rights organization called on to release employees of independent media outlets arrested in Azerbaijan.

January 22, 2025 21:56

• Human rights defenders treat court’s decision in missing Chechen Umarov’s case as unlawful

  In Grozny, a court has dismissed a complaint about the investigator’s refusal to present for examination the materials of a criminal case on disappearance of Movsar Umarov. The investigators are not interested in investigating cases that could prove the law enforcers’ involvement in the disappearances of people, human rights defenders suggest.

January 22, 2025 20:45

• Verdict to blogger Askhabali Alibekov mitigated

  The court has educed the freedom deprivation term of Askhabali Alibekov, a blogger from Novorossiysk, convicted within the case of attacking a policeman, by four months.

January 21, 2025 23:56

• Chechen advocate lIdalov demands to punish judge for unjust verdict

  Timur Idalov, an advocate from Chechnya, has been released from forced labour, since the order to enforce his sentence was revoked. The statute of limitations for the case has already expired. Idalov asked the Supreme Court (SC) to hold the judge who had sentenced him accountable.

January 21, 2025 23:17

• Defence of scientist Gubad Ibadoglu claims violation of his rights by police

  Gubad Ibadoglu, an opposition politician, scientist and economist, has to regularly report to the police station in the city of Sumgait under the conditions of police supervision, although he lives in Baku, and regular trips negatively affect his health.

January 21, 2025 22:53

• Baku townspeople commemorate “Black January” victims

  On the 35th anniversary of Soviet troops’ invasion into the city, Baku residents came to the memorial on the Alley of Martyrs to commemorate the casualties.

January 21, 2025 21:59

• Georgian activists demand Amaglobeli's release

  The NGO “Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” has demanded to stop the criminal prosecution of Mziya Amaglobeli and to fire the Batumi police boss who had detained the journalist.

January 21, 2025 21:57

• Convicted pensioner Baragunova complains about her rights violation at SIZO

  Larisa Baragunova, a pensioner from the city of Tyrnyauz, convicted for attacking law enforcers, has complained that the administration of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) bans her from call home, and her cellmates put pressure on her.

January 20, 2025 23:56

• Azerbaijani journalists consider French colleagues’ invitation to cooperate a provocation

  Three independent Azerbaijani journalists received emails with offers of cooperation signed by their French colleagues. The Azerbaijani journalists believe that those messages were sent by local law enforcers in attempts to get a pretext to institute criminal cases of espionage.

January 20, 2025 23:47

• Memorial events for Markelov and Baburova held in Russia and other countries

  On the 16th anniversary of the murder of advocate Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist of the “Novaya Gazeta” newspaper, memorial events were held in various cities in Russia, as well as France, Germany, Thailand, and other countries.

January 20, 2025 22:58

• PO approves charges against Volgograd lawyer Nurushev

  The Prosecutor's Office (PO) has approved the charges against Ruslan Nurushev, a Volgograd lawyer, in the case of disseminating fakes about the Russian Army.

January 20, 2025 21:49

• Defence points to violations of Chechen lawyer Timur Idalov's rights

  The court has overturned the ruling to enforce the sentence passed to Timur Idalov, a Chechen lawyer. The decision to keep him in custody after announcing the verdict is contrary to the law, his defence has stated.

January 20, 2025 20:40

• Tbilisi marchers demand lifting ban on using masks

  Activists in masks who protest against the ban on covering faces during protest actions have joined the Georgians who gathered outside the parliament demanding to go on with the country's European integration and new elections.

January 19, 2025 01:22

• Relatives alarmed by health state of three Kuban pensioners in SIZO

  Pensioners Nikolai Nabiev, Sergey Kuzovenko, and Marina Zakharova, accused of creating an illegal armed formation (IAF), complain about their health problems in a SIZO (pre-trial prison).

January 18, 2025 22:48

• HRW claims deterioration of human rights situation in Azerbaijan

  In its annual report on the human rights situation, the “Human Rights Watch” (HRW) international human rights organization has pointed to the intensification of repression against journalists and activists in Azerbaijan, as well as the practice of torture in prisons and the persecution of LGBT* community members.

January 18, 2025 22:39

• Father of Sochi engineer Alexei Schus is stunned by his son's sentence

  A court in Sochi has found Alexei Schus, an engineer, guilty of spreading fake news about the Russian Army motivated by hatred and sentenced him to 5.5 years in colony. He was also banned from administering websites for three years, the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has reported.

January 18, 2025 22:14

• Rights defender Nagavkin asks Putin to send colony inmates to Anapa

  In a letter to the Russian President, Igor Nagavkin, a convicted human rights defender, has offered to involve prisoners from the penal colonies in the liquidation of the environmental disaster in Kuban (the Krasnodar Territory) and expressed his desire to go to Anapa; he himself has expressed his readiness to take part in cleaning the beaches voluntarily and free of charge.

January 18, 2025 20:38

• In Tbilisi, march participants demand to release Mziya Amaglobeli

  On the 50th day of protests against the suspension of Georgia’s European integration, activists demanded to provide them with airtime on the “Georgian Public Broadcaster” Radio and TV Company to talk about the circumstances of the detention and arrest of Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Batumelebi” and “Netgazeti” online publications.

January 18, 2025 18:17

• Analysts: abnormal birth rate in Chechnya on December 31 could be provoked by manipulations

  In order to receive the payment promised by the leader of Chechnya for naming newborns after national heroes, pregnant women could resort to labour stimulation or caesarean section, as well as manipulation of the birth date. The abnormal number of boys born on December 31 confirms the above assumptions, analysts believe.

January 17, 2025 23:59

• Rights defenders comment on report about "exchange fund" of volunteers in Chechnya

  In Chechnya, people are forced to sign contracts, while law enforcers may set up a so-called "exchange fund" of volunteers from other regions who have arrived in the republic and will sign contracts (with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD)) instead of local residents, human rights defenders believe.