20 September 2006
Justice ministry threatens to suspend Belarusian Party of Communists

The Ministry of Justice is considering suspending the activities of the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC), reported to the ministry's press office.

According to the press office, the grounds are that the BPC leadership fails to meet the requirements of the Political Parties Law. In particular, the party allegedly refused to provide the ministry with information about its membership and received an official warning from the ministry for that. The ministry ordered that the BPC should provide the required data until September 15, but the party never did it.

In Wednesday's interview with BelaPAN, BPC leader Sergei Kalyakin accused the ministry of blackmail and said that the requirement was absolutely unfounded from a legal viewpoint. The information that the ministry has spread is false, he said. "Under regulations, we have one month to appeal to the warning to the Supreme Court," he noted. "We have notified the Ministry of Justice in writing that we will appeal against its decision in accordance with the established procedure. Under the law, the warning may come into force only if the Supreme Court upholds it. Only after the Court does it, the ministry may decide on initiating judicial proceedings to suspend the party's activities."

Earlier reports had it that the ministry issued the warning over the BPC's failure to provide data regarding the membership of its chapters, in particular the names and addresses of all members. But the party leadership argued that the order was illegal, as regulations require the central committee to provide the justice ministry with information about only the head, deputy head and secretary of a cell and the number of its members. "The BPC Central Committee does not have to present the party's membership list to the justice ministry because it is the grassroots organizations that should maintain such lists under the law," Valery Ukhnalyov, secretary of the Committee, told BelaPAN in late August.