Ministry of Justice rejects registration bid by Tell the Truth campaign

The Ministry of Justice dismissed registration papers by the civil campaign Tell the Truth.

The campaign’s constituent assembly was held on April 13 and on May 8 its cofounders applied for registration. The Ministry’s reply was to come by June 8, but the letter was dated June 12, said Tell the Truth activist Siarhei Vazniak to Radio Liberty:

“That is, the Ministry of Justice itself violated the terms provided by the law for registration or a reasoned refusal. So we have registration issues run by a public authority that violates the law.”

According to Vazniak, the letter mentions two reasons for the refusal.

The officials argued that the validity of the letter of guarantee (valid until May 31) for the registered office had expired by the time of submission.

“But it is not a violation, because at the time of filing, we did have a letter of guarantee. And they could ask for extension of the letter’s validity. That is, it is not a violation that cannot be eliminated. And the law states that refusal to register is only possible if the violation cannot be corrected,” says Siarhei Vazniak.

The other reason is that the registration papers supposedly failed to specify the quantitative composition of the NGO’s Board.

“It was specified: five people, and there was a list of the names. This is simply nonsense, which cannot be commented,” says Vazniak.

Mr. Vazniak says that the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court, and then again will be filed for registration in the Ministry of Justice. The activist also says that this was the third attempt to register the campaign.

“It is difficult to answer the question from a reasonable point of view because the state should benefit if there are registered organization. We are still working. And when we work without registration, the state has fewer options to control the activities of the organization. They really just do not have the brains,” says the Tell the Truth representative.