Members of "Front Line Defenders" call on to release Zhalaudi Geriev immediately

In Chechnya, Zhalaudi Geriev, a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot", has been sentenced under the fabricated charge, and he should be immediately released and acquitted. This was stated by the human rights organization "Front Line Defenders".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the court has sentenced Zhalaudi Geriev to three years of imprisonment on the charge of possession of marijuana. Zhalaudi Geriev has made a confession to investigators under pressure and later retracted it.

According to members of the "Front Line Defenders", the fabricated criminal case and unjustified severe punishment for Zhalaudi Geriev are associated exclusively with the fact that he covered the cases of human rights violations in Chechnya.

The human rights defenders point out that the detention of Zhalaudi Geriev was accompanied by numerous violations: law enforcers got the journalist off a bus, seized his mobile phone and backpack, where drugs were discovered later, and took him into the woods. There, they interrogated the journalist about his activities and accused him of his involvement in the armed underground. The hands of Zhalaudi Geriev were tied with wire, and torturers put a plastic bag on his head and did not remove it until he was almost suffocated.

Earlier, Zhalaudi Geriev has been supported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.