MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court ruled on Friday to allow a journalist of Russia’s liberal Novaya Gazeta to leave the country, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

The court overturned the previous ruling of Moscow’s Basmanny court to deport journalist Hudoberdi Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz), a citizen of Uzbekistan, to his home country.

Nurmatov will stay in a temporary accommodation center for foreign nationals until the documents are ready enabling him to "leave Russia’s territory for a third country," the judge said.

During the hearing, the journalist said he would like to leave Russia. "Your honor, now I don’t want to get an asylum in Russia, I want to leave the country. I’m illegally deprived for freedom, I ask for a permission to leave Russia’s territory," Nurmatov said.

A representative of the journalist said he was ready to go to Germany and had the necessary documents for that.

On August 1, 2017 Moscow’s Basmanny court announced a decision to expel Nurmatov from Russia. The court found the journalist guilty of violating the rules of entering Russia or the order of residing in the country.

A week later, the Moscow City Court ruled to suspend the decision until proceedings on the journalist's complaint filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) were over and ordered him to stay in the temporary accommodation center for foreign nationals.

However, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the Moscow City Court’s decision against Nurmatov and ordered a retrial.