The Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow declined to extend the pretrial detention of Alina Dzhikayeva, editor-in-chief of the North Caucasus outlet Sapa, who is обвиняемой in a bribery case. A Mediazona correspondent reported this from the courtroom.
The investigator withdrew the request to extend the preventive measure. Dzhikayeva’s detention term expires on Sunday, and after that, her lawyer said, she is to be released.
How the case developed
On April 14, security officers searched Sapa’s newsroom in Vladikavkaz. Six staff members were detained and taken for questioning to the local Center “E,” but were later released.
Dzhikayeva was then charged with bribing police officer Shamsutdin Shamsutdinov from Makhachkala. The officer himself was charged with taking a bribe and exceeding official authority.
According to investigators, from July 2020 to June 2025 the journalist paid Shamsutdinov about 290,000 rubles for information about incidents and the operational situation in Dagestan and North Ossetia-Alania.
Sapa had previously said that the outlet itself began operating only in March 2023, and therefore, in its view, its staff could not have been involved in events dating to an earlier period.
In April, the same court placed Dzhikayeva in pretrial detention, while Shamsutdinov was put under house arrest. The police officer immediately confessed, and Dzhikayeva later also admitted guilt.
TASS reported that the case against Sapa’s editor-in-chief is linked to the case against employees of the Telegram channel Baza: last summer, its editor-in-chief and producer were arrested in a case involving the purchase of police crime briefs.