Court agrees to question policeman in case on police preventive registration in Dagestan

The defence of former FSB officer Ramazan Nazhduev persuaded a court to question a Dagestani policeman who claimed that Ramazan Nazhduev had been put on the police preventive registration, human rights defenders report today.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on February 14, the Sovetsky District Court began considering an administrative lawsuit filed by Ramazan Nazhduev, who required the Department for Makhachkala of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the MIA of Dagestan to inform him of the reasons for putting him on the preventive police registration under the category of “extremist,” to recognize his inclusion in the above-mentioned database as illegal, and to exclude his data from the database.

Today, the team of the former Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* has reported that on April 27, a court hearing on the lawsuit of Ramazan Nazhduev was held in Makhachkala.

At the court hearing, Djamal Alilov, who represented the Dagestani MIA, stated that the information centre under the republic’s MIA did not keep any records under the category of “extremist.” Ramazan-Efendi Ramazanov, who represented the MIA’s Department for Makhachkala, told the court that such records were not kept in the city administration either.

Witness Kovalyov, the chief of the Kaspiysk checkpoint of the road-and-patrol police service (known as DPS), did not appear in court. On February 10, he confirmed to Ramazan Nazhduev under video recording that the latter was put on the police database as an “extremist,” the publication reports.

Ramazan Nazhduev himself stated in court that over the past six months, several policemen told him three times that he had been put on the police preventive registration as an “extremist.” According to Ramazan Nazhduev, the policemen referred each time to the database of the MIA of Dagestan. “The court decided to postpone the consideration of the case until May 23 to ensure the appearance in court of witness Kovalyov,” says the report prepared by former employees of the HRC “Memorial”*.

* The organization was included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs, performing the functions of a foreign agent, and was liquidated by decision of the Moscow City Court.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 29, 2022 at 03:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.