The Grotniki refugee centre (Marcin Stępień /Agencja Gazeta)
Mass executions, murders, abductions, rape, torture, intimidation, extortion, forged criminal proceedings, monstrous corruption — this is what Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechnya looks like today. The Russian republic is completely disconnected from the Russian legal system — with the consent of the Russian authorities.
Davit Dvali and Jarji Akimidze. (Photo: Rustavi2.info)
Controversy continues around Georgian TV channel Rustavi 2 with allegations of politically-charged changes in editorial policy following a hotly contested change in ownership. [Read more…]
Tsiala Shanava (left) and Iuri Vazagashvili with his son Zurab Vazagashvili’s portrait (right). PIA / Nodar Tskhvirashvili. RFE/RL
Georgia violated the right to life in the murder of two young men by police and also failed to properly investigate the crime, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. [Read more…]
Temirlan Machalikashvili (facebook)
The family of Temirlan Machalikashvili, a 19-year-old ethnic Kist from Georgia’s Pankisi Valley killed in a special operation, is taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights. The teenager was fatally shot while in bed in December 2017 during a counterterror sweep in Pankisi. [Read more…]
A protest on 19 January in Baku calling for freedom for ‘political prisoners’. (Fargana Novruzova)
Despite the European Court of Human Rights awarding compensation to dozens of activists and opposition figures in Azerbaijan, many say the government is not paying up. [Read more…]
Georgian citizens descending from a cargo plane after being expelled from Russia in 2006 (GPB)
The Russian Federation must pay Georgia €10 million ($11.5 million) in compensation for the damages suffered by more than 1,500 Georgian nationals who were arrested, detained, and collectively expelled from Russia in 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. [Read more…]
Abutalib Shakhruyev (OC Media)
A man from the Russian Republic of Daghestan has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over torture he says he was subjected to at Daghestan’s Centre for Countering Extremism. Abutalib Shakhruyev was sentenced to 11 years in prison in March for ‘aiding and financing members of illegal armed formations’. [Read more…]
Intigam Aliyev (/Amnesty International)
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that Azerbaijan’s arrest and conviction of Intigam Aliyev were politically motivated, aimed to ‘silence and to punish’ him for his human rights work. The Azerbaijani human rights lawyer was a loud critic of the authorities accusing them of cracking down on independent lawyers in Azerbaijan and using repressive tactics during 2010 parliamentary elections.
Jehovah's Witnesses in Prokhladny (Caucasian Knot)
A Jehovah’s Witness from the Kabardino-Balkarian town of Maysky is on trial in Prokhladny District Court for ‘inciting religious hatred’ and ‘calling to extremist activity’. Yury Zalipayev faces up to five years in prison if convicted. [Read more…]
European Court of Human Rights (Wikipedia Commons)
Georgia has filed a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for ‘wide-scale practices of harassment, detention, assault and murder on the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia’. While Georgia argued that such practices had ‘intensified since the 2008 war’ reaching a ‘critical point’ with the February killing of Archil Tatunashvili, South Ossetian officials dismissed the move as ‘an absurd propaganda action’. [Read more…]
