Advocate Gevorkov: IWPR works in Northern Caucasus under Russian laws

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) works in Northern Caucasus in strict conformity with the Russian legislation, thinks Professor Vladimir Gevorkov, Merited Lawyer of the Russian Federation, President of the Bar of the Stavropol Territory on the Caucasian Mineral Waters and Doctor of Jurisprudence.

"I talked to employees of law enforcement bodies. They suspect him (Alan Tskhurbaev, editor of the IWPR for Northern Caucasus, - comment of the "Caucasian Knot") of violating the legality of their activities: that he operates in the organization that is not registered in the territory of the Russian Federation," V. Gevorkov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"...The contract is public and open, duly signed by both parties and bearing a seal, it's all lawful, money transfers passed through the bank, nobody hides them, the accounting period of the year (April) has not arrived yet; it's too early to report about these receipts. That is, at first sight, I don't see any violations here."

As he said, Tskhurbaev has no copies of any documents:

"Firstly, he has no copies of the documents, which confirm the legality of arrival of the OBEP employees, secondly, copies of the documents on any confiscation - of at least one piece of paper. The OBEP employees said that they had some data, I guess that they had nothing."

A year ago, during a search held at the Vladikavkaz Office of the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting by the employees of the Investigatory Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia, computers and all the documents were also confiscated.

Valery Dzutsev, coordinator of the Institute's programmes in Northern Caucasus, was accused of tax evasion. Mr Dzutsev himself thinks that "the attention of law enforcement bodies to him has also a political pretext and, possibly, is connected with his journalistic activity."