Among the most common strategies of harassment of human rights defenders, both as individuals and at the organisational level, are accusations of formal, bureaucratic wrongdoings, such as tax evasion. Below is a story of this happening to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Read the organisation´s own press release on the issue, signed by Stanislav Dmitrievsky (right) and Oksana Chelysheva (left). (15-OCT-05)
This article was written by editor in Chief Stanislav Dmitrievskiy and editor of this release is Oksana Chelysheva
RUSSIAN-CHECHEN
INFORMATION AGENCY
Press Release #1554 from October 14, 2005
Report from Nizhny Novgorod
Acknowledgement of the evident fact: the tax agencies have confirmed the political background of their claims to the RCFS
14.10.2005. Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society received a letter from the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region in response to their complaint about the decisions taken by the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district that had been submitted some time before. The RCFS asked to cancel the decision taken by the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district to impose the profit tax upon the assets received by the RCFS to implement specified projects. The complaint was submitted to the superior tax body in accordance with the procedure established by Article 139 of the Tax Code. The Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region represented by the deputy chief inspector of the administration Natalya Mamykina made a decision not to comply with the request. She explained her decision by stating, for instance, that the RCFS had published MaskhadovÂ’s and ZakaevÂ’s peace appeals in its newspaper. According to Mamykina, publication of these appeals contradicts both to the statutes of the RCFS and to article 2 of some federal law (she didnÂ’t indicate what law she meant).
Moreover, Ms. Mamykina stated in her letter that ´according to part 5 of article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, establishment and activities of public associations which activities are aimed at forcible change of the constitutional order and disrupting the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, threatening the safety of the state, organizing armed groups and inciting to social, ethnic or religious animosity are prohibited´. Then Natalya Mamykina comes to the conclusion that the organization has received the funds with the framework of implementing charity activities. However, Mamykina claims that ´they are considered as a profit of the organization as it has spent the received funds beside the purposes of the projects. Thus, the profit tax can be imposed upon them´.
´The tax officials have been persuading everybody that their actions against the RCFS are just a regular tax inspection, that it is observance of the tax law that they are interested in and there is no political background in this case. Now Ms. Mamykina is behaving like the corporal´s widow who has whipped herself. Mamykina has acknowledged that the tax claims have been directly caused by publication of Maskhadov´s and Zakaev´s appeals by the RCFS. Bravo!, commented Dmitrievsky the response made by the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Dmitrievsky continues, ´If we consider Mamykina´s work from the point of view of the law, it´s not clear for me how an official of the tax inspection can give her estimates to the content of the publications in our newspaper. According to the law, it is the prerogative of court of general jurisdiction or Information Ministry or the Committee on Disputes on Information, as the last resort. The tax bodies have nothing to do with these issues. From the legal point of view, the fact the regional prosecutorship perceived these articles calling to the peaceful reconciliation of the Russian-Chechen conflict as incitement to ethnic animosity and decided to prefer charges against me means nothing. The prosecutorship has to prove these accusations in court and I think that they are going to have many problems to do it. I´d like to remind Mrs. Mamykina that according to part 1 of Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a person suspected of committing a crime is regarded innocent unless their guilt is proved in court and court verdict gets its legal force. The same refers to the dirty hints made by Mamykina that activities of our public association are aimed against the forcible change of the Constitutional order and similar nonsense. I have to remind here that the only court verdict of March last year that had something to do with our organization referred to a 500-ruble fine for some inaccuracy in the date-line of our newspaper. That´s all!´
In conclusion the executive manager of the RCFS stated, ´It goes without saying that we are going to appeal this decision as it is ignorant from the point of view of law. But it is important that we have obtained irrefutable evidence that the tax bodies and the prosecutorship are acting jointly against us, that they are coordinating measures undertaken to destroy the human rights organization. We have not sent any issues of the newspaper to the tax inspection and they didn´t demand it as they don´t have such a right according to the law. Natalya Mamykina must have received information about Maskhadov´s and Zakaev´s appeals in the newspaper only from the prosecutorÂ’s office of Nizhny Novgorod region. But it is a gross violation of the principle of the secrecy of investigation´.
As we reported before, on 15 August 2005 the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district made Resolution #25 to bring the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society to tax accountability for alleged breaking the tax law. The deputy chief of the tax inspection M. Yu. Trifonov claimed in this document that the Society has to pay taxes and fines amounting to 1 001 561 rubles for the funds that they had received from international donors to implement their specific projects. On 24 August the RCFS appealed this decision at the Arbitrage Court of Nizhny Novgorod region as unlawful and ungrounded. The complaint lodged by the RCFS is to be considered on 26 October at the Arbitrage court. The RCFS also appealed this decision to the superior tax body that is the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Besides, on 2 September the chief editor of the ´Pravo-zaschita´ newspaper and the executive manager of the RCFS Stanislav Dmitrievsky was officially charged of committing the crime under paragraph b of part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (´inciting to animosity´). The charges refer to the fact of publication Askan Maskhadov´s open letter to the European Parliament and Akhmed Zakaev´s appeal to the people of the Russian Federation that contain tough rhetoric against the policy of president Putin in the North Caucasus.
The publication of this release was made possible by European Union within the framework of the project ´Open information about the Chechen Republic in the name of peace and human rights: Russian- Chechen Information Agency´ and The National Endowment for Democracy within the framework of the program ´Russian-Chechen Information Partnership´.
