21:24, 24 May 2007

Ahmetgaliev: criminal case against Dzutsev is connected with his civil stand

In North Ossetia, the parties in the case initiated early in 2007 against journalist Valery Dzutsev, coordinator of the representative office of the British Institute for Covering War and Peace in North Caucasus, continue to study the case files.

On May 21, the NGO's office in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Republic, was searched. After that, Mr. Dzutsev himself, in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot," called the presented accusations to be "politically motivated." The Republic's Office of Public Prosecutor, in its turn, thinks that the NGO's coordinator is guilty of tax evasion.

However, Ramil Ahmetgaliev, a lawyer of the Inter-Regional Association of Human Rights Organizations "Agora," explained in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the pretext of charges against Dzutsev should be sought in the general tendency "to cut oxygen" to NGOs and activists, to control all their activities, as well as donation sources and the procedure of spending funds.

Author: Alexandra Kondrasheva, CK correspondent