Supreme Court upholds registration denial to ‘Zalaty Leu’

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Hrodna oblast court concerning the non-registration of the Slonim NGO Zalaty Leu. On 4 March the Civil Cases College Board of the Supreme Court, presided by Judge Valer Samaliu, considered the complaint lodged by the Zalaty Leu founders and found the verdict of the Hrodna oblast court well-grounded and the registration denial – legal.

Bear in mind that in November 2009 the main justice bureau of the Hrodna oblast executive committee refused to register Zalaty Leu referring to the incompatibility of certain provisions of the organization charter with the law. The pretensions concerned the order of amending the charter and appealing against the decisions of the governing organs of the NGO. The weirdest pretension of the justice bureau was that the meaning of the name Zalaty Leu wasn’t explained in the documents that were filed for registration of the NGO.

The Hrodna oblast court dismissed the pretensions concerning the name and the order of appealing against the decision, but presented other reasons for its non-registration. In particular, the fact that only members of the organization could be elected to its organs wasn’t reflected in the organization charter. The Supreme Court decided not to discriminate in all peculiarities of the case and supported the registration denial by its verdict.