Kyiv – The Verkhovna Rada disbanded the faction of the Communist party, and there over 300 criminal charges have been drawn up against individual party members. In the district administrative court of the capital on Thursday, the examination of the Ministry of Justice’s plaint regarding the ban on CPU activity started, a protest gathered near the court walls. The plaintiffs claim that they are ready to provide evidence of the communists’ crimes committed in the east of Ukraine, as well as unconstitutional calls of the party head Petro Symonenko. The defendant meanwhile insists that the accusations were dictated by the political interests of pro-government parties.
Parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov announced the dissolution of the Communist party faction, as the number of its members was less than the acceptable norm – 23 people. As such, the communists remain part of the Verkhovna Rada as non-faction members.
Meanwhile the court started examining the plaint of the Ministry of Justice regarding the ban on the Ukrainian Communist party. According to the head of the State Registry Service Ganna Onyshchenko, there is evidence that the communists supported the separatists and armed groups in Crimea and Donbas, therefore there are criminal cases in addition to the administrative one.
“At the moment 308 criminal charges have been drawn up regarding the crimes the members of the Communist party of Ukraine committed. We understand that this case will not be easy, and I am afraid that it will not be a Blitzkrieg. The fact that eight representatives of the Communist party showed up to court testifies that they will do everything possible to delay the sentence,” notes Onyshchenko.
The lawyers of “Svoboda,” which, together with “Oleh Liashko’s Radical party” and some other political powers, are participating in the court examination as a third party, are also talking about the intentional extension of the case. Non-faction Parliament member Oleh Liashko claims that he was ready to testify against the communists in court.
“I saw with my own eyes when the members of the Mariupol city council, members of the Communist party, in particular, Deynes, headed the column that occupied the city headquarters of internal affairs. Under the leadership of Deynes and the communists, in Mariupol, the city council was captured and burned, separatist meetings were held, a so-called “referendum”,” said Liashko.
Also, according to the MP, he has evidence that the military unit in the town of Shchastye in Luhansk oblast was blocked under command of the members of the local CPU council members.
All the accusations against the CPU are political in character – lawyer
The Ministry of Justice provided 120 sheets of proof of the CPU’s guilt, and the defense – 300 sheets of denial, stated Yevgen Herasymenko, one of the layers representing the communists’ interest in court.
“For the most part, all the accusations are political in character. Say, someone said we have to federalize the country. They never claimed that it is necessary to come to the Verkhovna rada with sticks and weapons, therefore a violent way, which is prohibited by the Constitution: shoot everyone and establish our own regime. They only meant to discuss at least amendments to the Constitution,” says the lawyer.
The preparatory session lasted over two and a half hours, the next was appointed for August 14th. Among the protesters at the meeting against CPU activity at the court walls, a fight broke out, an elderly man was pushed to the ground, he hit his face. The activists from “Svoboda” later assured the journalists that they witnessed the man trip by himself.
Source: Radio Svoboda
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina
