Party led by Navalny can’t run in elections

(Interfax – March 30, 2015)

The Moscow City Court has upheld the Justice Ministry’s refusal to include the Progress Party in the register of parties that have the right to run in elections, an Interfax correspondent has reported, citing a decision made by the judicial collegium on civilian cases read on Monday.

The court declined the complaint filed by representatives of the party Progress, upholding the district court law ruling.

Representatives of the party said they intend to file an appeal. “We intend to file an appeal against today’s decision with the Supreme Court. We will also file complaints with the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court. We clearly see that the law is ambiguous and need clear interpretation,” Dmitry Krainev, a representative of the party in court, told Interfax on Monday.

According to earlier reports, the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court on January 28 declined the Progress Party’s lawsuit against the Russian Justice Ministry, upholding the ministry’s actions.

In their lawsuit, the claimants alleged that the Justice Ministry’s decision not to include the Progress Party in the federal list of political parties that have the right to participate in elections was illegal and asked the court to order the ministry to correct what the party saw as irregularities.

In late November 2014, the Justice Ministry press service told Interfax the decision to include the party in the list of parties that have the right to participate in elections or to invalidate its registration certificate would not be made until the agency received court rulings on complaints against the actions by its territorial departments.

The Progress Party was officially registered with the Justice Ministry on February 25, 2014. The leader of the party is Alexei Navalny, an opposition activist, who ran for the post of Moscow mayor in the fall 2013 elections. Navalny received a suspended sentence of 3.5 years ion prison on December 30.

Navalny also has a suspended prison sentence for the ‘Kirovles case’. On July 18, 2014, the Kirov Leninsky Court sentenced him to five years in prison for stealing from the enterprise. However, the next day he was released until the day the sentence entered legal force after he gave his written promise not to leave the city. On October 16, the Kirov region’s court changed the sentence, replacing a real prison sentence with a suspended prison sentence.

[featured image is file photo]