Organizers to appeal to Russian Supreme Court shortly
It became known on Monday 2 April that the head of Moscow City Court Olga Egorova dismissed extraordinary appeal of Moscow Gay Pride organizers against the earlier delivered decisions of Tverskoi district court and Moscow City Court which upheld the ban by city authorities of the first ever gay pride march in the Russian capital on 27 May last year.
Organizer of Moscow Pride received a letter signed by the head of Moscow City Court in which it is said that extraordinary appeal is considered, that there are no reasons to restart the case and that the appeal is dismissed.
On 26 May last year Tverskoi district court of Moscow upheld the ban of the gay pride march due to be held next day. On 19 September Moscow City Court dismissed the appeal of the organizers. On 25 December the same court dismissed the other extraordinary procedure appeal.
On 29 January organizers of Moscow Gay Pride sent application against Russia to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They ask that the ban of the march and picket is judged unlawful and contradictory to the European Convention as well as 20,000 euros compensation. European Court opened the case of Alekseyev v. Russia. The letter of confirmation was sent on 20 February. The case will be considered by the First Section of the Court.
Moscow Gay Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev said on Monday that “we exhausted all possibilities to review the unlawful decision concerning the pride march ban last year within Moscow court system. The denial of its head opened to us the road to the Supreme Court”.
Nikolai Alekseev said that “we already started to prepare a new extraordinary appeal which will be sent to the Supreme Court shortly. I think the reaction of the highest court instance in Russia can be expected before 27 May, the date of the second gay pride march in Moscow. From the very beginning we said that it would be logical to send this case to the Supreme Court before it is considered in Strasbourg”.
Moscow Pride organizer underlined that “Moscow court system is highly dependent on City authorities. That is why we had little hope to win the case against the authorities in these courts. Supreme Court will obviously not be subjected to the pressure from Moscow City Hall and its decision should be more objective. I would like to remind that Russian federal government already expressed their position concerning the march ban. Being head of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Russian federal authorities admitted that local authorities could not ban gay marches”.
The organization committee of the second Moscow Pride was formed on 19 March. The event is scheduled for Sunday 27 May, 14th anniversary since the decriminalization of male homosexuality in Russia. Organizers will notify Moscow authorities according to the law between 15 and 10 days prior to the event. They confirmed that they are determined to go on the streets even if the march is again banned by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
GayRussia.Ru
