A United Nations mission, led by Vladanka Andreeva, UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan, visited the Karabakh region in Azerbaijan on Sunday, 1 October.

“By all appearances Oyub Titiev’s case is fabricated as a revenge for his human rights work. We demand Russian authorities to drop charges, immediately release Oyub Titiev, and guarantee his safety. Russia’s international partners should keep a close watch on the situation and demand Russian authorities to free Oyub Titiev,” said Joanna Kurosz, Eurasia programme director at Civil Rights Defenders.

We are troubled by the news that the head of the local Chechen branch office of the Russian human rights NGO Memorial, Oyub Titiev, has been arrested. This is the latest in a string of reports of alarming recent human rights violations in Chechnya. We call on Chechen authorities to immediately release Mr. Titiev.

Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), voiced serious concerns regarding the arrest and detention of Oyub Titiev, Director of the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Chechnya, in the North Caucasus republic of the Russian Federation.

The three-year jail sentence that Chechen journalist Zhalaudi Geriyev received on a charge of drug possession on 5 September was clearly a politically-motivated punishment for his reporting and, as such, was the latest offensive in Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s war against independent journalism.

In response to a Russian court sentencing Zhalaudi Geriev, a journalist with the online news site Caucasian Knot, to three years imprisonment, Freedom House issued the following statement.

ARTICLE 19 condemns the sentencing of Caucasian Knot journalist, Zhalaudi Geriev, to three years in jail on dubious narcotics charges, which we believe to be politically motivated.

On 5 September 2016, the Shali District Court of Chechnya sentenced human rights defender Mr Zhalaudi Geriev to three years imprisonment on charges of drug possession.

Draft Resolution on “Divided Europe Reunited: promoting human rights and civil liberties in the OSCE region in the 21st century” - OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

European Parliament resolution on human rights in Russia

The Law of the Republic Dagestan