A court in the far eastern region of Sakhalin overruled on Thursday an earlier decision by a lower court to ban an Islamic text on extremism grounds after complaints from senior religious figures and outspoken Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Muslims were expecting the reversal of this decision,” said Said-Magomed Chapanov, a lawyer for Kadyrov, said after the decision by Sakhalin Regional Court, according to Interfax.
Parts of the Islamic text “Supplication to God” were pronounced extremist under controversial new legislation by a court in Yuzhno-Sakahlinsk on Aug. 12, prompting an outcry.
“I demand a harsh punishment for the provocateurs who made this court decision,” Kadyrov, the head of the mainly Muslim North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya wrote on Instagram at the time.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin introduced legislation to the Duma preventing courts from deeming major religious texts — including the Quran and the Bible — extremist.
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