Salim Khalitov reports law enforcers' attempts to interrupt his picket in Gadjiev's support

A solo picket in support of the journalist, Abdulmumin Gadjiev, was held in central Makhachkala by Salim Khalitov. According to Salim, law enforcers tried in every possible way to force him to come to the police station and even informed him about the allegedly available information that he wanted to jump under a car during the picket.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Magomed Magomedov, a deputy editor-in-chief of the "Chernovik" portal, who went out to picket in Makhachkala on July 11 in support of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, was detained by the police. Murad Muradov*, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, who was filming the picket, was also detained. On the same day, both journalists were released, while policemen explained the detention by the fact that they decided to remove the poster from the eyes of the officials, whose motorcade was supposed to pass through the place.

On July 18, Salim Khalitov, an activist, held a solo picket in Makhachkala in support of Abdulmumin Gadjiev. He called for the release of the journalist and an end to his conditional prosecution.

Salim Khalitov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the law enforcers who came to the venue demanded from him to go to the police station, but the activist refused to obey.

After Khalitov finished his picket, he received a phone call from the security officer who was present at the venue and who tried once again to convince him to go to the police station. At the meeting, the law enforcer told Khalitov that some information had been received that he was planning to jump under a car during his picket. In this regard, the law enforcer asked him to give written explanations. "I wrote that this was nonsense, fiction, there was nothing like this and I was not going to jump under a car," Mr Khalitov has stated.

In his opinion, the story of an attempt to jump under a car was specially invented by law enforcers in order to deliver the picketer to the station. "These actions are aimed at intimidating the population so that they refrain from holding solo pickets," Salim Khalitov has explained.

*By the Russian Ministry of Justice, Murad Muradov has been included into the register of foreign agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 19, 2022 at 02:44 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.