Court suspends Communist party case

The Supreme Court of Belarus today suspended proceedings into the case of the Belarusian Party of Communists. The Belarus Ministry of Justice brought the party in court, seeking to close down the Communist party after it allegedly failed to present the lists of the party's members.

The Ministry of Justice's lawyer Aliaksandr Kharyton insisted during a hearing today that the court suspended proceedings due to the new circumstances in the case.

"The Ministry of Justice says that another case, regarding their January 4 warning to the party, should be added to the pending case.

The court satisfied the motion. But, I think that these two case have nothing in common. In our view, the court should drop this case at all, as there are no legal grounds to close down our organization.

We submitted the lists of our members to the Ministry of Justice as far back as October 16, 2006," Siargej Kaliakin, the leader of the Belarusian Party of Communists told the European Radio for Belarus.