Russia’s Supreme Court overturned earlier court ruling concerning the expulsion from Russia of Isfandier Aralov, a student from Tajikistan. Aralov was a student of agricultural college in Leningrad region and back in August 2015 was found guilty of illegally working in Russia: during holidays he worked part-time at a construction site. Oktyabrsky district of St. Petersburg court had earlier made a ruling on his deportation “in the form of self-controlled exit from the country”, which deprived him of the opportunity to continue college training, for which he had paid. In an order to observe the expulsion order, he had to interrupt his studies and leave the territory of the Russian Federation.
Later, in November 2015, St. Petersburg city court upheld the decision of the district court and Olga Tseytlina, lawyer of ADC “Memorial”, filed an appeal against this ruling to the Supreme Court of Russian Federation.
On June 8, 2016 judge of the Supreme Court ordered to terminate the administrative proceedings against Aralov, pointing out that the courts of lower instance had not taken into account all the circumstances of the case: Aralov had the right to work without a work permit or a work patent, as foreign students have the right to work without obtaining permission during the holidays (Subsection 6 of Section 4 of Article 13 of the Law on the legal status of foreign citizens).
Thus, it took almost a year to defend Aralov’s rights and justice was restored only by ruling of the Russian Supreme Court. At the same time Aralov paid dearly for lack of professionalism of the judges of district and city courts, his plans for education were destroyed and he suffered material losses as he had studied in college on paid basis.
The next stage of restoration of the rights of Isfandier Aralov should be allowing him to enter Russian Federation, as the Supreme Court also overruled earlier illegal court decisions on expulsion.