08:21, 15 May 2019

Advocates treat Cherkesov's struggle against ban on praying in jail as promising

Aslan Cherkesov, convicted of killing a football fan. Photo: screenshot of a video by the "Caucasian Knot"

Aslan Cherkesov, who is challenging the legality of the ban on administering namaz (prayer) in colony, received no rights defenders' reaction within six days, said his advocate. In Chechnya, the court earlier passed a positive decision on a similar convict's complaint.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 6, a court in the Krasnoyarsk Territory rejected most of the complaints of Aslan Cherkesov, a native of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), convicted of killing a football fan; his complaints concerned his custody conditions in the colony. He urged rights defenders and journalists to intervene in the violation of his religious rights.

The advocate has confirmed that Cherkesov had recorded a video message, addressed, in particular, to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov and the Chief Mufti of Russia.

"The constitution, as the country's basic law, guarantees the freedom of religion. The court in Chechnya has recently confirmed this in Bitaev's case; the judgement states that a prayer is more important than morning exercises," said Irina Biryukova, a lawyer of the "Public Verdict" Foundation.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 14, 2019 at 11:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Rustam Djalilov

Source: CK correspondent