Russia's justice minister delivered a scathing attack on Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday for his refusal to answer a summons from Russia's Constitutional Court.


Dismissing Gorbachev as a "political corpse", Nikolai Fyodorov said in an interview that the court would push ahead with its demands for the former Communist Party leader and Soviet president to appear.


"The Constitutional Court operates on the basis of law, and Gorbachev must fulfill his obligation to report to the court", Fyodorov said. He accused the former Kremlin chief, whose passport has been withheld over the affair, of behaving like a "hooligan".


Gorbachev has been summoned to testify at a trial on the legality of President Boris Yeltsin's ban on Communist Party activities. He rejected a summons to appear, denouncing the trial as politically motivated.


On Monday, the court fined Gorbachev 100 rubles, the equivalent of 30 cents, for ignoring the first summons and issued a second summons ordering him to appear in court on Wednesday.


Yeltsin also weighed in against Gorbachev on Tuesday, denouncing his


predecessor's refusal to testify as "disrespect for a law-based state, for the Constitutional Court and for Russian statehood", according to Reuters.


But Gorbachev got support from the Italian government, which summoned Russia's ambassador in Rome to protest the travel ban. Gorbachev is scheduled to go to Italy on Oct. 15, but he now looks unlikely to make the trip.


Fyodorov said the West should recognize that "all citizens are equal under the law - and that means a tractor driver and an ex-president".


In refusing to appear, Gorbachev has argued effectively that the trial is not a legal procedure at all, but rather a political affair.


"I do not want to take part in turning the Constitutional Court into an organizer of political trials", Gorbachev said in remarks published Tuesday in Komsomolskaya Pravda, "The Constitutional Court must examine whether laws conform to the constitution, but it is being asked to judge history. I do not want to take part in this - it is, after all, not a Constitutional Court, but a political trial in the Constitutional Court's building".


Fyodorov said that the court had been justified in asking the ministries of security and foreign affairs to prevent Gorbachev from leaving the country.


"Gorbachev violated the law blatantly", Fyodorov said. "He set a bad example to the whole population".


The court, meanwhile, heard a second day of testimony from Yegor Ligachev, the Communist Party's former ideology chief, who maintained an unapologetic tone.


Ligachev acknowledged that the government's decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 1989 had required the approval of the Politburo.


Yeltsin's defense team is trying to prove that the party was unconstitutional because it controlled the government, rather than acting only as a social organization.