Lena Patyaeva, a friend of missing Chechen native Seda Suleimanova, was charged with an administrative offense after a solo picket in Grozny. She held the protest on August 23, the third anniversary of Suleimanova's disappearance. Under the charges against her, Patyaeva faces up to 30 days in jail or a fine of up to 300,000 rubles.
Dozens of residents of the village of Adigeni in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in Georgia, together with Orthodox priests, gathered for a protest. They tried to prevent fellow Muslim villagers from holding Friday prayers.
Ministry of Internal Affairs officers were mobilized on the spot. They called not to violate the law “On Freedom of Assembly”.
A month ago, Friday prayers for Muslims in Adigeni were disrupted after local residents protested against them. The Georgian Muslim Union condemned the persecution of people on ethnic and religious grounds and demanded an investigation into the incident. There is no mosque in the village; on Fridays, Muslims gather in the house of a local resident.
The State Agency for Religious Affairs of Georgia called on Muslim and Christian religious leaders not to succumb to provocations.