Makhachkala resident seeks in court removal from prophylactic registry

Arsen Gasanov, who was detained by Makhachkala power agents during his Friday namaz (prayer), demands to remove him from the so-called “prophylactic registry”, treating law enforcers’ actions as lawlessness. Today, his advocate has refuted the assertions of the lawyer of the Dagestani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) that the order on the rules of putting people on prophylactic registry is a secret document.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the practice of putting people on prophylactic registry is actively used in Dagestan. Rights defenders assert that law enforcers often do it without due reasons, for example, just because a man has a beard or visits a mosque.

Arsen Gasanov was detained in February 2016 by policemen on duty at the mosque; he was taken to the police station and, according to his story, he was then put on the prophylactic registry.

The interests of Gasanov are defended by the advocate Murad Magomedov, who was contracted by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”.

The MIA has the right to run various registries of citizens, provided their legitimate rights not being violated, said Timofei Shirokov, a Moscow lawyer.

He has treated the situations, when people, who are on the prophylactic registry, are examined at road checkpoints, banned to leave some region or the country, forced into police stations, fingerprinted there, photographed and forced to give DNA samples, as illegal.

Elena Denisenko, a lawyer from the Bar Association of the Krasnodar Territory, has also confirmed that in Northern Caucasus the actions of the police against those on the prophylactic registry are illegal.

She said that the only way to get removed from the registry is through the court.

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