BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/01/2008

Belarus court to ponder outlawing Party of Communists - source

MINSK. Jan 12 (Interfax) - Belarus' Supreme Court will hold "a preliminary hearing" on January 30 "of a suit seeking the abolition of the Party of Communists", a court source told Interfax.

The suit comes from the Justice Ministry, which has accused the Party of Communists (PKB) of regularly breaking the law and departing from its own charter.

"Written warnings to it from the Ministry of Justice had no effect -offenses kept being committed. For this reason, the Ministry of Justice was forced to choose a more strict measure and file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court for the suspension of this party," the ministry said.

PKB leader Sergei Kalyakin told Interfax it was illegal today to start a procedure to abolish the party.

The law still gives the PKB a period of time to end its alleged malpractices and report this to the Justice Ministry, he argued. "The deadline has still not come, while the Ministry of Justice has carried out no inspection of the party's activities," he said.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/353762/news.aspx