Mirzalizade demands a complete lifting of ban on his stay in Russia

The defence of Idrak Mirzalizade filed an appeal against the court’s decision, which only partially cancelled the life-long ban on the comic’s stay in Russia and obliged the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to set a different time limit.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on August 30, the Russian MIA banned ethnic Talysh Idrak Mirzalizade, a citizen of Belarus, who served an administrative arrest for his joke about xenophobia, from entering Russia for life. In September, Idrak Mirzalizade challenged the ban on entering Russia, and the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow postponed the entry into force of the Russian MIA’s resolution on the undesirability of the comic’s stay in the country.

The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow partially granted the Idrak Mirzalizade’s claim and obliged the Russian MIA to set a reasonable period of ban on the comic’s stay in the Russian Federation instead of the life ban. However, the defence was not satisfied with the court’s decision, and an advocate filed an appeal against it, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow reports today. “The court received an appeal from the advocate of Idrak Mirzalizade,” the spokesperson for the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow reported.

Sergey Badamshin, an advocate of Idrak Mirzalizade, has clarified that he insists on the complete cancellation of the Russian MIA’s resolution, the TASS reports today.

The administrative prosecution and then the ban on staying in Russia were provoked by the Idrak Mirzalizade’s joke about the problems with renting housing in Moscow. The comic was also attacked after his joke about xenophobes. The attackers demanded from him to apologize, but Idrak Mirzalizade refused. According to the comic, three weeks before the attack, he received several thousand threats.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 25, 2021 at 04:52 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.