Moscow Gay Pride Hearing at European Court Put Back at
Request of Russia
MOSCOW, January
20, 2010 (Gay Russia) – The
European Court of Human Rights informed the
Moscow Pride organisers yesterday that it has extended the deadline for the
Russian government to submit its position on the admissibility and the
merits of the complaints put to the Court over than banning of Moscow Gay
Pride and other events.
Last September,
the Court formally opened the case of 163 banned LGBT events in Moscow
including the most symbolic bans of Moscow Prides 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Last month, the
Russian government asked the Court to extend the deadline citing a workload
of cases to manage.
The Russian
government has now been granted until February 20 to submit its position to
the Court.
“We have been
engaged in this fight for freedom of assembly for five years,” Moscow Pride
chief organizer Nikolai Alekseev said last night.
“All these
years, we have been paying the price of the workload of the Court due until
recently to the blocking of the reform of the Court by Russia,
“Now that the
Court finally opened our cases, we are paying the price of the workload of
the Russian mission in Strasbourg. Will
this ever end?"
“It is now
unlikely that we get a decision in time for our next Pride on May 29,” Mr.
Alekseev pointed out.
■ The next Moscow Pride is scheduled for May 29 and will mark the fifth attempt to stage the first authorised gay Pride in Russia.