Haste in opening case against Dagestani blogger Khanov raises doubts about its grounds

Blogger Khadjimurad Khanov asked for house arrest in a criminal case on illegal arms trafficking, but a court placed him in custody, an advocate and a friend of Khadjimurad Khanov report. The criminal case against the blogger looks strange, since it was instituted several days after the scandal over a niqab, a Dagestani human rights defender and a journalist emphasize.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the court arrested blogger Khadjimurad Khanov for two months in the criminal case on illegal arms trafficking. The charges brought against Khadjimurad Khanov in the criminal case are absurd, and the attention of the law enforcement bodies to the blogger is caused by the scandal surrounding his demands for an apology from a doctor in Khasavyurt, who asked a patient to remove her niqab during a medical examination, to which the leader of Dagestan reacted, Dagestani journalists and activists believe.

Relatives and friends of Dagestani blogger Khadjimurad Khanov consider the court’s decision on his arrest to be biased, says a friend of Khadjimurad Khanov. “There was no evidence or objective reasons to arrest him for two months,” noted the Khadjimurad Khanov’s friend.

“Khadjimurad asked to be placed under house arrest because he was not going to escape. The court has not taken into account that he takes care of his minor children and dependent elderly mother with disabilities, and he is actually the only breadwinner of the family,” Khadjimurad Khanov’s friend said.

Shamil Khadulaev, the chair of the Public Monitoring Commission of Dagestan, has called the court’s decision strange. “Criticism against Khadjimurad Khanov began with accusations of supporting militants, but he served his sentence for what happened in Germany. But in Dagestan, Khadjimurad Khanov was not involved in anything criminal. He was accused of allegedly threatening a doctor in a clinic, but they could not prove the threats. And after that, the criminal case was opened against him for possession of a grenade,” Shamil Khadulaev said.

The chair of the republic’s Public Monitoring Commission (PMC) has noted that in Dagestan, people feel doubts when they hear about  cases in which a grenade is suddenly found among a person’s belongings.

Milrad Fatullaev, an editor of the “Derbent” news agency, does not consider the criminal case against Khadjimurad Khanov to be politically motivated. The journalist notes his doubts arise from the fact that the blogger was criticized for threatening the doctor, but finally, the criminal case was instituted against him under a different article.