The Moscow Property Department tried to evict the Moscow Islamic University from its occupied building • Sova • RIMA

The Moscow Property Department tried to evict the Moscow Islamic University from its occupied building

The Moscow Property Department filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court for the early termination of the lease agreement and the eviction of the Moscow Islamic University (MIU) from the building of the former kindergarten at 12 Proezd Kirova, where the university has been located since 2000. According to the rector Marat Murtazin, "for seven years, a major overhaul was carried out here on our own, a sports hall, a library, computer classes, a language laboratory were equipped."

At the end of January, the institute's management received an order to vacate the building until March 1, 2007. The reason was that MIU provided premises to commercial organizations. According to M. Murtazin, the university temporarily let sponsors into the building, helping to carry out repairs, in order to reimburse the costs in this way.

Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, appealed to Yuri Luzhkov with a request to transfer the MIU occupied building "for gratuitous use" or to maintain preferential terms for its lease. The mufti noted that prior to filing a lawsuit, the university "was offered an additional agreement on setting a market rental rate of 6,910 rubles per square meter, which amounts to 2,379,700 rubles a month." For the university, "this is an unbearable amount."

"If the court decides in favor of the property department, then more than 200 students and teaching staff of the only Islamic university in central Russia, along with educational equipment, will simply be on the street this spring," M. Murtazin said.

On February 9, the Moscow Property Department withdrew its claim. As the head of the department, Vladimir Silkin, explained, the Moscow Islamic University eliminated the violation that caused the claim, i.е. evicted commercial tenants. Moscow officials had no more claims, so the MIU will remain in its building.

Sources

Moscow Islamic University may be evicted from the occupied building // RIA News. 2007. February 8.
The Department of Property of the Capital withdrew claims against the Moscow Islamic University after the elimination of violations // Interfax-religion. 2007. February 9.