SUPREME COURT OF CASSATION ALLOWED THE REGISTRATION OF DOST PARTY

On 29th of July, Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation, overturned the ruling of Sofia City Court, which turned down the registration of the new DOST party of the former leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Lyutvi Mestan.

Sofia City Court turned down the registration of DOST party on grounds that the abbreviation DOST meant "friend" in Turkish, that the majority of the party founders had names of Turkish origin and that Bulgaria’s Constitution forbids political parties based on racial, religious or ethnic identity.

The Supreme Court of Cassation does not share the reasoning of Sofia City Court, on the basis of which it refused the registration of DOST – possible future actions on ethnic and religious basis, in contradictions to the goals formulated in the founding documents.

According to the Supreme Court of Cassation, the reasoning of the first instance court for “possible actions on ethnic or religious basis” is purely hypothetical.

The presented documents and statutes of DOST did not give a reason to assume that the party was founded on the basis of an ethnic or religious group, closed to people, values and ideas outside such group, the decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation says.