The family of Temirlan Machalikashvili and their supporters gathered on 26 December demanding a parliamentary investigatory commission be set up. (Dato Parulava/OC Media)
The Family of Temirlan Machalikashvili, who was shot dead by Georgian security forces last December, have held a silent rally in front of Tbilisi’s parliament building demanding parliament look into the teenager’s death. [Read more…]
A sign in Grozny reading ‘Let the justice triumph’ (Dominik K. Cagara /OC Media)
Many families in Chechnya tell of young male relatives who have either disappeared without trace or are being held in detention, suggesting such cases are not rare.
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…]
Buynaksk (Russiantowns.livejournal.com)
Police in the Russian Republic of Daghestan have detained four teenagers on weapons charges near the town of Buynaksk. Parents of the detainees say the authorities intend to frame the boys for a fabricated terror plot. [Read more…]
Relatives of the sentenced men watching armoured vehicles leave the building of the Supreme Court of Chechnya in Grozny on 12 September (/YouTube)
On 12 September, a court in the Russian Republic of Chechnya convicted 14 men of ‘participation in an illegal armed formation’ and ‘illegal purchase and possession of weapons’. The trial was held in secret, with relatives claiming they were promised the men would receive lighter sentences if they did not contact rights groups or the media.
Screenshot from a video from a counterterrorism operation in Botlikh, Daghestan, in March 2018 (Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation /YouTube)
For several years, young Daghestani men have been disappearing, reported missing by their families only later to be declared ‘destroyed in counterterrorism operations’. Evidence from the families of many of these men as well as local rights groups and experts, suggest they may have been kidnapped by the authorities, and that faking the war on terror is just another face of Daghestan’s raging corruption.
The aftermath of the attack in Shali (Euronews /YouTube)
One police officer was killed and three more injured in Chechnya on Monday in a coordinated knife, bomb, and car attack, according to official reports. Four of the five attackers, one of who was 11 years old, were killed during the attacks, and a fifth wounded.
Timur Khamkhoyev the North Caucasian Military Court in Nalchik (Screenshot /Caucasian Knot)
On Friday, former employees of Ingushetia’s Centre for Countering Extremism were sentenced by a court in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. Neither the prosecution nor the defence was satisfied with the verdict, although many activists maintained that sentencing was ‘a huge achievement for human right defenders in the North Caucasus’.
Otar Kakhidze, Sergi Kapanadze and Elene Khoshtaria (Mzia Saganelidze - RFE/RL)
Investigators from the Khorava Street murder case faced questioning from MPs on Monday, into alleged failures by the investigation. A parliamentary commission was set up in the wake of large street protests in Tbilisi, which followed the partial acquittal of the suspects in the case and allegations the investigation was mishandled. [Read more…]
Malkhaz Machalikashvili (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) has launched an investigation into Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of Temirlan Machalikashvili, a 19-year-old boy killed by security forces in Pankisi in December, after he said he ‘and several hundred others’ had planned to blow themselves up at the SSG offices but changed their minds. Machalikashvili later explained his speech was merely an emotional speech, insisting he would do no harm to Georgian people.
