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Court Upholds Gay Parade Ban

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a decision by City Hall to ban a gay pride parade on May 27.

The parade's organizer, Nikolai Alexeyev, said the ruling indicated that the authorities had no intention of fulfilling their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and promised to lodge an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights.

"Today's decision will be challenged in the European court," he said, according to Interfax.

Tuesday's ruling upheld a decision by the Tverskoi District Court in July. The ban was the seventh imposed by City Hall since 2006.

Despite the ban on the May parade, which was supposed to mark the 19th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russian law, about hundreds of people gathered at two unsanctioned rallies in downtown Moscow. Forty people were detained amid clashes between gay and Russian Orthodox activists.

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