Lawyers assess blogger Alibekov’s chances for CER

Askhabali Alibekov, a blogger from the city of Novorossiysk, can hope for conditional early relief (CER), if he has no violations and the suffered policeman agrees to this, lawyers have indicated in their comments on the reduction of Askhabali’s punishment.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on October 9, 2024, Alibekov was sentenced to two years and four months of freedom deprivation. According to investigators, Alibekov, a native of Dagestan, during his detention hit the policeman in the leg. The blogger claimed that he had hit the law enforcer by accident, since his arms were twisted. The Supreme Court (SC) of Tatarstan has reduced his prison term by four months.

Grigory Polikarpov, an advocate, said that Alibekov can hope for the CER only after expiration of half of his term. Grigory has added that in order to be released under the CER, Alibekov must avoid violating the custody regulations.

After serving at least one third of the sentence imposed for a minor or moderate crime, a convict can hope for the CER, a lawyer from the “Memorial” Centre for Human Rights Defence* believes.

Alibekov's wife reported that they wanted to open another criminal case against her husband.

"We were worried, but it's good that everything ended this way. The court reduced the sentence down to two years. He’ll be back at large in March next year," she said.

*As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the roster of foreign agents was the spread of "inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces."