Watchdog

The Vienna-based International Bar Association has bestowed its 2015 Human Rights Award on jailed Azerbaijani lawyer Intigam Aliyev.

The group made the announcement on October 9, saying the award was "well-deserved recognition of Mr. Aliyev and the instrumental role he has played in promoting human rights and the rule of law in Azerbaijan for more than two decades."

Aliyev founded the Legal Education Society in 1998 to provide legal assistance to marginalized groups. He has represented many Azerbaijani activists and human rights defenders.

In an acceptance letter read on his behalf by his children, Aliyev said he was honored but also sad because "today, in my country, colleagues, conscientious people are facing prosecutions, pressures, and imprisonment."

He was arrested in August 2014 and convicted of illegal business activity, tax evasion, abuse of authority, and other charges in April 2015. He is serving a 7 1/2-year prison term.

Opposition activists in Moscow have unveiled a monument to slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

The monument at Nemtsov's grave in Moscow's Troyekurovsky Cemetery was unveiled on October 9 to mark what would have been his 56th birthday.

The monument is in the form of a stone with Nemtsov's name inscribed on it and five bullet holes spread across it.

The Andrei Zverev Arts Center in Moscow opened a photo gallery devoted to Nemtsov's supporters, who have been maintaining a makeshift memorial site on the bridge near the Kremlin where Nemtsov was shot dead in February.

In Basel, Switzerland, Russian musicians Andrei Gavrilov, Andrei Makarevich, and Svyatoslav Vakarchuk will give a memorial concert -- the same program that was banned by Russian authorities when they tried to hold it in Moscow to mark 40 days after the killing.

Five men have been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting of Nemtsov, who was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.​