Watchdog

MOSCOW -- Dozens of women have held a series of one-person pickets in central Moscow to call for the release of their children, who they said had been arrested on politically motivated charges.

The mothers of the activists stood with placards outside the building of Russia’s presidential administration on November 4, which is marked in Russia as National Unity Day.

Russian law allows holding so-called single-picket protests -- when demonstrators stay away from each other -- without the need to ask for official permission.

One of the picketers, Natalya Konon, told RFE/RL that the protest action's goal was not only to challenge the authorities but also to "wake up society."

She is the mother of Daniil Konon, one of several activists arrested for allegedly assaulting police during an unsanctioned rally on July 27.

Several of the protesting women came from mostly Muslim-populated Russian regions of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan to demand the release of their children who were imprisoned for allegedly being members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group.

"Our children are NOT terrorists!" their posters read.

The leader of For Human Rights group, Lev Ponomaryov, joined the protesters to denounce the Supreme Court's decision last week to shut down his organization.

BAKU -- Prominent Azerbaijani rights activist Oqtay Gulaliyev is in a coma after being hit by a car in Baku, his wife says.

Firuza Gulaliyeva spoke to RFE/RL on November 4, a week after the activist was rushed to a hospital in the Azerbaijani capital on October 29.

Gulaliyev is the coordinator of a nongovernmental group called Committee Against Repressions and Torture that defends inmates' rights in Azerbaijani penitentiaries.

He has been actively defending the rights of dozens of people in high-profile politically motivated cases.

After Gulaliyev was hit by the car, his colleagues and opposition activists in Azerbaijan accused the authorities of being behind what they called an attempt to kill the human rights activist.

On November 1, Baku police rejected the allegations, saying that Gulaliyev was injured in an ordinary traffic accident that had nothing to do with his professional activities.

Gulaliyev's son, Ali, told Current Time on November 1 that his father faced pressure from the authorities and threats from unknown people when he was defending dozens of people arrested in July 2018 following deadly protests in Azerbaijan's second-largest city, Ganca.

President Ilham Aliyev's opponents, Western countries, and international human rights groups say Aliyev's government has persistently persecuted critics, political foes, independent media outlets, and civic activists.

Aliyev, who has ruled Azerbaijan since shortly before his father's death in 2003, has rejected the criticism.