The court that will consider liquidation of the Communist Party of Ukraine already banned the existence of two parties

Photo: rian.com.ua

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine filed a suit with the court on the liquidation of the Communist Party of Ukraine. “According to the results of the a large number of evidence regarding the illegal acts on the part of the CPU, I made a decision to submit an appeal to the District Administrative Court to liquidate the Communist Party of Ukraine,” Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko said yesterday at a briefing.

Noteworthy is that on May 19 Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov appealed to the Ministry of Justice requesting to ban the CPU. Turchynov disclosed information of the State Security Service (SBU) according to which members of the CPU in the south-eastern regions of Ukraine participated in mass demonstrations under anti-Constitutional slogans. According to the SBU, leaders of the CPU also provided material and technical support to the terrorists. As was noted in Turchynov’s letter, the Communists “participated in the organization of a pseudo-referendum in Donetsk on May 11” and the leadership of the party ostensibly provided dubious information of the events in the country with the help of the Russian mass media.

Petrenko said information submitted to the SBU point to involvement of members of the CPU in the military operations against Ukrainian law enforcers in the Anti-terrorist Operation zone. “We are convinced that given such a strong evidential base our position is legally corroborated. This political force should be liquidated,” said Petrenko.

The CPU has already formed a group of lawyers made up of both Ukrainian and foreign counselors to defend the party’s interests. “Lawyers of foreign states that expressed their support of Ukraine after my visit to Europe will most definitely participate in this process,” First Secretary of the CPU Petro Symonenko told Interfax-Ukraine.

Anticipated claim

The District Court of Kyiv to which the Ministry of Justice filed a claim recently passed down a ruling banning two parties in Ukraine – United Russia and the Russian Bloc. Former minister of justice Serhiy Holovatiy believes the Ministry of Justice could have appealed to the courts much earlier. “But if Petrenko filed a claim now, I believe he was guaranteed a result. I will not predict the term of review of this case, but I can say that this issue will be resolved before the next parliamentary elections,” Holovatiy told Capital.
According to information that Capital possesses, the Presidential Administration decided on filing of the claim and banning the CPU through court hearings back in June. “At that time, the former Vice Speaker of the VR Ihor Kaletnyk, who did a lot to promote his influence in the party, abandoned the faction. After Kaletnyk left the faction another six deputies, who were later thrown out, jumped ship. One of them, Oleksandr Holub, nevertheless, believes the ruling of the court will be politicized. “This is a litmus paper for democracy in Ukraine,” Holub told Capital.

In the parliamentary elections in 2012 the CPU garnered the greatest support in Sevastopol – 29.46%, in the Luhansk oblast – 25.14%, in the Kherson oblast – 23.34%, in the Zaporizhzhia oblast – 21.16%, in the Kharkiv oblast – 20.84% and in Crimea -- 19.41% of the votes.

Pro-government opposition

The CPU was already once banned in Ukraine on August 40, 1991 by the decree of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada by which the party was accused of organizing the coup d’etat in cahoots with the State Committee of Emergency Situations (SCES). The party renewed its activity two years later, when on June 19, 1993 a founding congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine was held in Donetsk. In December 2001, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine deemed the ban of the CPU was not in compliance with the Constitution.

Practically all the years that the CPU has existed in the Verkhovna Rada, despite its public oppositional position, the party was part of the pro-government majority. Moreover, even while being in the opposition the CPU had influence on the adoption of state decisions. For example, the government under Yulia Tymoshenko often exploited the votes of the Communists for the adoption of indispensable bills.