Watchdog

Human rights activist Intiqam Aliyev has been detained in Baku.

A court in Baku charged Aliyev on August 8 with tax evasion, abuse of office and illegal entrepreneurship.

His lawyer, Anar Gasymly, said a court swiftly jailed Aliyev for three months.

Aliyev has denied the allegations and said that his arrest is politically motivated.

Aliyev is a veteran rights activist and was awarded the Homo Homini human rights award in the Czech Republic in 2013.

Czech NGO People in Need said, "It is shocking that this is all happening as Azerbaijan is heading Europe's top rights watchdog -- the Council of Europe."

Aliyev is the latest rights defender to be detained in Azerbaijan.

Rasul Cafarov was detained on August 2 for alleged tax evasion and abuse of authority.

Leyla and Arif Yunus are also in custody after being arrested on charges of treason, tax evasion, and illegal entrepreneurship.

A court in Moscow has rejected a prosecutor's demand to place Russia's outspoken opposition blogger Aleksei Navalny into pretrial detention.

The court started preliminary hearings into a case against Navalny and his brother Oleg on August 1.

The prosecution asked the court to incarcerate Navalny, saying that he had violated his house arrest conditions by using the Internet.

Navalny wrote on Twitter that he used the Internet to post some documents related to the case.

The Navalny brothers face charges of stealing and laundering $760,000 from French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

Navalny has been under house arrest since February and banned from using the Internet.

The case is one of several targeting Navalny, who is already serving a five-year suspended sentence on a separate 2013 theft charge.

He denies any wrongdoing, saying all probes against him are politically motivated.

Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS