Defense of stand-up comedian Mirzalizade will ask to shorten the term of the ban on his entry to Russia

Sergei Badamshin, the lawyer of stand-up comedian Idrak Mirzalizadeh, will ask the court to reduce – to one year – the period of banning his client from entering Russia.

Let us remind you that earlier today the Moscow City Court rejected Mirzalizade’s appeal to lift the ban on stay in Russia.

In a comment to Gazeta.Ru, Badamshin noted that while the length of the term has not been established, the court proceeded from the fact that the maximum term for criminally punishable acts, a sign of which is an increased public danger, was set at 8 years, by analogy with the term of conviction.

He clarified that when it comes to administrative offenses, you need to pay attention to the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative responsibility. This period is 1 year. Badamshin explained that it is for this reason that Mirzalizade’s defense insists that the ban on the comedian’s entry into Russia be reduced to a year. According to him, if the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not comply with the recommendations, the defense will again go to court.

This afternoon, the Moscow City Court recognized the decision of the Zamoskvoretsky Court to ban Mirzalizade’s stay in Russia as legal. The district court’s decision was upheld. At the same time, the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court on October 5 ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to establish a “reasonable” period of ban on entry to Russia for a comedian, recognizing the department’s order of August 27, 2021 as illegal.

Earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation recognized Mirzalizada’s stay in Russia for life as undesirable after a scandalous joke about Russians and a mattress soiled with feces. The comedian was found guilty under Art. 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (“Incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity”) and spent 10 days under administrative arrest.