South Ossetia: leader of People's Party Kelekhsaev accuses Ministry of Justice of engagement

Roland Kelekhsaev, the leader of the People's Party of South Ossetia, blames the local Ministry of Justice of biased attitude and expresses his dissatisfaction with the statements of the Minister Murat Vaneev, who has treated the situation around the party as their internal conflict. This was the topic of Mr Kelekhsaev's letter to the Minister submitted on July 23.

Back on the eve of the 2009 parliamentary elections, the People's Party split into two parts. Kazimir Pliev, who was supported by the then president Eduard Kokoity, became the chairman of the new People's Party. In June 2012, Kelekhsaev filed a complaint to the Dagestani General Prosecutor's Office and Ministry of Justice citing a "capture" of the People's Party. The Ministry of Justice has sent an official response to Kelekhsaev, where the politician was named the chairman of the People's Party of South Ossetia.

However, on July 18, the Minister of Justice explained that the answer to his complaint sent to Kelekhsaev was not an order or administrative act. The Ministry had not received any official papers about the meeting of the People's Party, where another chairman had been elected. This was stated by the Minister Murat Vaneev in his interview to the IA "Res", where he treated the conflict as an "intra-party one."

Roland Kelekhsaev has treated this statement as an engaged one and emphasized that the MPs under the brand of the People's Party are illegally sitting in the Parliament.

In his turn, Vyacheslav Gobozov, the leader of the Socialist Party "Fydybasta" (Fatherland), also complained about the pressure. According to his story, during all the 10 years in power, the team of Eduard Kokoity oppressed the "Fydybasta", especially during elections – the party was removed from elections in 2004, and in 2009 Gobozov excluded from the list of candidates for MPs; and in 2011 he was withdrawn from the list of presidential candidates.

So far, there are no comments of official bodies on the statements of the above politicians.