Abkhazia unfreezes assets of the Centre for Humanitarian Programmes

Abkhazia’s tax service has unblocked the bank accounts of five employees at the Centre for Humanitarian Programmes (CHP) following a recent court decision. The authorities have yet to unfreeze the accounts of a sixth employee, which he has described as political pressure against the organisation.

CHP, a charitable organisation that provides legal and material assistance to people in Abkhazia, applied to the Arbitration Court following the blocking of their account in April 2024 on suspicion of tax evasion.

Their assets were frozen two weeks after an official tax inspection found there to be no violations by the organisation. Since then, the organisation has been unable to carry out any financial transactions.

In their claim, CHP asked the Arbitration Court to recognise the tax service’s actions as illegal. By the decision of Judge Kama Aristava, the centre’s demands were partially satisfied. Five of the six accounts were unblocked, the exception being the account of CHP lawyer Said Gezerdaa.

After conducting a scheduled tax audit, which did not reveal any violations, the tax service requested the account data of six employees: Arda Inal-Ipa, Liana Kvarchelia, Asida Shakryl, Naala Kartozia, Said Gezerdaa, and Yulia Lagvilava. CHP refused to provide such information, and their accounts were subsequently frozen. 

According to CHP lawyer Lyudmila Achba, the Ministry of Taxes and Duties had no grounds to demand individual contracts, since the tax audit of the organisation had been completed without claims, and no violations were found. 

Representatives of the ministry justified their actions, stating that they requested the documents in connection with the need for analysis of the activities of individuals providing services to the Centre for Social Protection, suspecting that CHP’s employees were providing commercial services as a non-profit organisation.

Gezerdaa has confirmed that he received fees for teaching, writing articles, and conducting trainings, but says that he does not sell, resell, or produce anything; therefore, he has not broken any law that might merit the freezing of his accounts. However, it appears that Gezerdaa’s registration as an individual entrepreneur alongside his work at the CHP led the court to maintain the block on his accounts. 

Lyudmila Achba, a lawyer from the centre, reportedly disagreed with Judge Aristava’s decision in court, stating that a tax audit of Gezerdaa’s accounts as an individual entrepreneur has already been conducted. She added that the Ministry of Taxes and Duties had demanded Gezerdaa’s contracts from the centre without providing a reason for their request. 

In April, Gezerdaa criticised the freezing of his and his colleagues’ bank accounts as being politically motivated, ahead of the Abkhazian Parliament’s discussion of the foreign agent law submitted by President Aslan Bzhaniya in February.

Gezerdaa has also been an outspoken critic of the law on apartments, draft legislation that was adopted and then immediately repealed by parliament following public anger and protests in Abkhazia, as well as an agreement on transfering ownership of the Pitsunda (Bichvinta) state dacha to Russia’s Federal Protective Service. 

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

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