Human rights organisation, Agora, has been informed that they will undergo a tax inspection by the Interregional Federal Taxes Services of the Republic of Tatarstan and it is believed that this forms part of an ongoing pattern of harssment of the organisation as it is the seventh inspection they have undergone since June 2009.

Further Information

Agora is a human rights centre based in Kazan.

On 5 August 2009, at approximately 18:00 pm, representatives of Interregional Inspection of the Federal Taxes Service of the Republic of Tatarstan arrived at the Kazan offices of Agora and informed the office that following a decision taken by Ms Ludmila Abramova, deputy director of the inspection division of the Taxes Service, their offices were to face a 16-step tax inspection.

They were ordered to present 21 specific document types for the inspection. Despite facing 6 previous inspections in recent months, no irregularities have been found in the organisation's activities or reports.

Previously, on 20 July 2009, at approximately 14:30 pm, agents from the investigation and intervention unit for fiscal offences, pertaining to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, carried out a search of the Agora offices, as well as the offices of the Kazan Human Rights Centre.

The search, which was conducted at the request of the Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan, Mr Rafael Gilmanov, lasted until 02:30 am on the morning of 21 July. Due to the removal of over 2000 active files during the search, the human rights activities of Agora were effectively suspended.

On 28 July 2009, the situation of the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders in Tatarstan was discussed during the Presidential Council session on civil society institutions and human rights. Members of the Presidential Council took a decision to write to the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation denouncing the persecution of Agora.

On 3 August 2009 Russian human rights organisations sent an open statement to President Medvedev in which they requested an end to the persecution of all human rights defenders in Tatarstan, who were being persecuted solely as a result of their human rights activities.