Grand Mosque of Makhachkala (Shamil Magomedov/Wikipedia Commons)
A court in Makhachkala’s Sovetskiy District dismissed local resident Arsen Gasanov’s bid to have his name removed from the ‘preventive supervision list’ on 29 March. He plans to appeal the case at the republic’s Supreme Court.
In January, 40-year-old Hasanov approachedOC Media for help after discovering that he was on the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ preventive supervision list, labelled an ‘extremist’. According to Hasanov, he appeared on the list after being detained by police on his way to attend Friday prayers. The police pushed him into a car and took him to the police station.
Hasanov appealed to the court in Makhachkala in February with a request to remove his name from the list. The case lasted more than a month.
‘I was accused of having invented everything. This trial was a farce. The defendants stated that they had no information that I was on the list,’ Hasanov told OC Media.
‘This is despite the fact that we have an official response from the head of the district police department which says that I am on it as an “extremist”. We have all these papers and we introduced them in court. The judge just sits there covering his ears. I won’t leave things like this. I will continue fighting for justice’.
In March, the Supreme Court sent a request to Daghestan’s Interior Ministry to provide the court with the ministry’s procedures for regulating the preventive supervision list. In his response on 23 March, Abdurashid Magomedov, head of the ministry, denied that any such ‘extremist’ category was supervised by them.
Hasanov will appeal to the Supreme Court within ten days.
Daghestan has been adding people to the preventive supervision list for several years. On 23 June, Russia adopted a law allowing those who are ‘prone to crime’, or whose behaviour is ‘antisocial’ or ‘violates generally accepted standards of behaviour and moral, rights, and legitimate interests of others’ to be added to the list, which imposes restrictions on freedom. Opaque procedures for adding people to the list allow law enforcement officers to include practically any Russian citizen. As a rule, people, who find themselves on the list must report their movements and actions to their local police precinct. Yet, since the law doesn’t specify how to handle people who are included in the list, in practice, each police station sets their own rules.
For a year and a half, Makhachkala resident Arsen Gasanov and his family have been harassed by police. Despite going to court for an explanation of why, and the register on which he was labelled an ‘extremist’ officially being disbanded, the harassment still continues.
How it all began
Arsen Gasanov’s trouble with the law began a year and a half ago, when he unexpectedly discovered that he had been put on the police’s ‘preventative supervision register’ in March 2016.
In the spring
A Daghestani man has reached out to OC Media for help after finding himself on Russia’s ‘preventive supervision list’. Arsen Gasanov found himself on the Ministry of Internal Affairs list without his knowledge, and now he’s afraid for his life.
Daghestan has been adding people to the preventive supervision list for several years. On 23 June, Russia adopted a law allowing those who are ‘prone to crime’, or whose behaviour is ‘antisocial’ or ‘violates generally accepted standards of behavi
A court in Makhachkala’s Sovetskiy District dismissed local resident Arsen Gasanov’s bid to have his name removed from the ‘preventive supervision list’ on 29 March. He plans to appeal the case at the republic’s Supreme Court. 
