Dagestani journalist, Magomed Magomedov, released from police

Law enforcers have set Magomed Magomedov, a deputy editor-in-chief of the "Chernovik" (Draft) weekly, free after three hours of questioning about the picket in support of the journalist Abdulmumin Gadjiev. Magomedov said he would file a complaint against law enforcers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that law enforcers did not allow Gadjiev's colleagues to hold a picket in his support and took Magomed Magomedov away to the police station. Journalists and human rights defenders gathered at the ROVD (District Interior Division). Salim Khalitov, an activist, unfolded a poster in support of Gadjiev, thus continuing the disrupted picket. Law enforcers demanded explanations from him and detained the activist too.

As Magomed Magomedov has explained, law enforcers had tried to get additional explanations from him about the picket. According to his advocate, there are prospects to recognize law enforcers' actions as illegal. "Explanations can be taken on the spot. There were no grounds for delivering the picketers to the ROVD and keeping them for several hours there," the advocate has explained.

Solo pickets in support of Gadjiev are held in Makhachkala on a weekly basis. His colleagues believe that pressure on media professionals and criminal prosecution of journalists are a sort of all-Russian trends. According to investigators, Gadjiev, acting jointly with Abubakar Rizvanov, the head of the "Ansar" Charitable Fund, and Kemal Tambiev, had raised 68 million roubles and 200,000 US dollars for terrorists under the pretext of building mosques and helping poor Muslims.