You're reading: Justice minister moves to ban Communist Party for supporting terrorism

Ukraine's justice minister moved to ban the Communist Party on July 8 for support and financing of terrorism and other crimes, for which the minister said “a massive body of evidence” was collected by the Security Service of UKraine.

Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that he filed a lawsuit to the local city court to ban the party based on the evidence presented by the security service, known as the SBU, to the ministry.

But the spokesman for ideology of the Communist Party’s committee in Kyiv, Omar Al-Ani, said that the Ukrainian Justice Ministry’s evidence is fabricated. “The Ukrainian government tries to get rid of real opposition forces, the Communist Party, which is the only party in Ukraine that continues protecting the people’s interests,” Al-Ani said.

Petrenko said the 129 pages of evidence, as well as substantial video materials, are part of a case being presented to court. He accused the party of unconstitutional activities, support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its military aggression, calls for changes of territory and constitutional orders of Ukraine, organization of separatist meetings, financing and buying equipment (including weapons) for terrorist organizations in eastern Ukraine, support of illegal referendums and self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and participation in the war against Ukraine in the eastern parts of the country.

“All these facts were recorded by the SBU, the prosecutors within a whole series of criminal cases that have been opened and are now being investigated, based on the following articles: violation of territorial integrity and constitutional order of Ukraine, terrorist activity and separatism… We are convinced that with the evidence we are in a legally strong position and this political force will be banned,” Petrenko said at a briefing on July 8.

“We will ask European lawyers for protection. Communist Parties in Czech Republic and Germany have already agreed to help us,” Al-Ani said.

Minister Petrenko also said that in case of the ban of the party by court, its registered symbols will also be banned.