As Ukraine enjoys the first parliament without the presence of the Communist Party (CPU), the government is fighting a battle in court to ban the party altogether. Kyiv Administrative Court set the next hearing of this administrative case for Feb. 18, but there are also some 20 criminal cases against individual party members who are accused of aiding separatism in the east of Ukraine, inciting violence and other crimes.
The
legal ban case was initiated in July, and the Communist party has
been trying to drag the case out as much as they can, Ukraine’s
Justice Ministry says. The ministry is handling the case.
“There
is an obvious interest of the CPU to delay a trial,” says
Oleksandr Oliynyk, head of the ministry’s legal department. “They
pick one piece of evidence and request the court to authorize an
expert examination. Obviously, it is aimed at delaying the trial,
discrediting the plaintiffs.”
Moreover,
the CPU has appealed to the European Parliament to hear its case,
claiming that freedom of political thought is infringed upon in
Ukraine. The ministry denied charges, and says the case is open to
public for everyone to make up their own minds.
“It
is impossible to find a trial which is more open to the public than
this one,” Oliynyk says. The ministry expects the ruling within
the next few months or even weeks.
Representatives
of the Communist party, however, are saying that they’re not getting
a fair trial. Yevgen Gerasymentko, the CPU lawyer, said that in
Ukraine it is impossible to conduct an independent examination of
evidence, for example, since all experts are subordinate to the
Ministry of Justice.
Ukraine’s
Justice Ministry has said previously that it had collected massive
volumes of evidence that the Communist party supports separatism in
the east. Under Ukraine’s law on political parties, moves against
Ukraine’s independence, calls to change of constitutional order
through violence, activities that threaten the nation’s security and
sovereignty can be reasons for a legal ban of a political party.
Oleksiy
Haran, professor of political science at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, says
that he hopes that the justice ministry’s body of evidence is
sufficient for a ban, but it does not mean that the party will cease
to exist. “The outcome of this trial will depend on the accuracy
of evidence,” he says. “However, such a prohibition does
not exclude the possibility that the CPU will be reinstated in some
other form in the future.”
While
Petro Symonenko, the CPU leader, maintains that the party if
pro-Ukrainian. The party is considered to be a heir to the Soviet
Union’s Communist Party, which was responsible for famine that killed
millions, and many other atrocities on the territory of Ukraine in
the 20th century.
Yale
University professor Timothy Snyder called Ukraine “the
deadliest place on the Earth to live in the 1930s,” partly due to
the role played by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Kyiv
Post legal affairs reporter Mariana Antonovych can be reached
at [email protected].
