Turan team reports problems in news agency because of Mekhman Aliev's arrest

The consideration of the appeal against the arrest of Mekhman Aliev, the director of the Turan news agency, is scheduled for August 30. The news agency will have to stop its activities since September 1. This was reported by journalists from the Turan news agency.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Mekhman Aliev was detained on August 24. He was charged with illegal entrepreneurship and tax evasion, and the court pronounced the decision to arrest Mekhman Aliev. The director of Turan news agency denied the charges.

"It became difficult to work. Firstly, the arrest of Mekhman Aliev greatly affected the creative work, since he was engaged not only in administration activities, but also wrote articles and prepared analytical and survey materials. Secondly, on Monday (August 28), almost all of our employees were summoned for questioning to the Department for Preliminary Investigation of Tax Crimes and that fact strongly affected the news agency's activities. The people were cut off from the work process. At the same time, tax inspectors came to the agency and seized all financial documents that they did not take during the search carried out on August 16. Thirdly, we have to take more efforts to focus on protecting the Mekhman Aliev's rights," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Shakhin Gadjiev, an editor of the news agency.

He has emphasized that starting from September 1, the Turan news agency will have to stop its activities.

"The fact is that all the news agency's bank accounts are blocked because of the criminal case. Without funds, we will not be able to pay salaries, taxes, contributions to the pension fund, payments for utilities, communication, the Internet, and so on," said Shakhin Gadjiev.

However, according to him, the team will support the news agency's website at the expense of personal resources and enthusiasm.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.