The organizers of Moscow’s banned gay parade on Monday filed a lawsuit against the city’s mayor, Yury Luzhkov, for publicly calling the parade “a satanic act”.

“Both in the secular and religious context, the term “satanic” is offensive and carries a negative colouring,” Nikolai Alexeyev, a parade organizer, said.

Alexeyev said organizers were seeking a retraction from Luzhkov for ’denigrating comments that don’t correspond to reality’ as well as 1,000 rubles ($38) each in compensation for moral damage.

It was unclear how Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court would respond to the lawsuit, which follows a complaint lodged last month with the European Court of Human Rights.

Luzhkov’s remarks came at a Christmas-themed festival in late January, when the mayor said, “We have not allowed this parade and we will not allow it,” adding that “it’s impossible to call it anything other than a satanic act.”

The Moscow mayor has blasted Western cities for condoning gay parades and homosexual marriage and at the January festival called “unacceptable” the “propaganda of single-sex so-called love.”

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