Moscow City Court upholds arrest of Peter Vince, founder of Sakharov Prize

Today, a trial of Peter Vince, founder of Andrei Sakharov Prize "For Journalism as a Deed", was held. Among others, editions from the Caucasus and journalists covering Caucasian topics were laureates, finalists and nominees of the Prize. The Moscow City Court has upheld the decision of the district court, which had sanctioned Mr Vince's arrest.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it from Boris Timoshenko, head of the monitoring service of the Glasnost Defence Foundation, who is also Secretary of the Prize.

Peter Vince attracted steadfast attention of law enforcement bodies back in 2007. The Moscow office of his logistics company was exposed to off-the-schedule checks, which paralysed the work of the company for some time. However, no criminal case was then opened. In 2008, another search was conducted, and a criminal case for tax evasion followed.

On December 15, 2009, the Dorogomilovo Court of Moscow satisfied the repeated petition to take Peter Vince to custody. Earlier, this Court rejected the first petition, but the Moscow City Court returned the case to reconsideration.

Now, Mr Vince, who is a US citizen and lives in Latvia, is under threat of extradition to Russia.

He does not exclude that his persecution stems from his refusal to pay for "roofing" and his making public the attempt to press on him in 2007.

Mr Timoshenko does not exclude that initially the case could have developed as "a usual racket, but then, after Peter's address to mass media, acquired political context."

According to Olga Bobrova, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta", "Sakharov Prize is not the reason of Vince's troubles, but just a catalyst."

Peter Vince and Elena Bonner, Andrei Sakharov's widow, have repeatedly applied for protection to President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev, however, with no fruit. Now, 10 applications of Prize winners and nominees have been sent to President Medvedev.