MOSCOW, December 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Supreme Court will hold hearings Friday on a motion to appeal a lower court's ruling against controversial nationalist party Rodina, party leader Dmitry Rogozin said Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Rodina lawyer Boris Kuznetsov filed a 30-page-plus appeal against a Moscow court decision to remove Rodina from the Moscow Duma election list on November 26, thereby upholding a lawsuit filed by the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).

The LDPR, led by the controversial Vladimir Zhirinovsky, accused Rodina of inciting inter-ethnic tension in a television commercial in the run-up to the December 4 vote. The broadcast featured three dark-skinned men from the Caucasus tossing a watermelon rind at the feet of a passing Slavic girl with a baby. A voice-over against the background of the Rodina emblem urged people to "remove the rubbish from Moscow".

Rogozin earlier said his party would remain a lawful participant in the election campaign until the Supreme Court had ruled on the appeal.