A Moscow court ruled on Tuesday that a journalist writing under a pen name for the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta had violated Russian immigration laws and would be deported.

Moscow police detained Khudoberdi Nurmatov, an Uzbek citizen, during a document check in front of the newspaper’s offices, an Amnesty International representative in Moscow wrote on Facebook.

“A court in Moscow just ruled to deport a good friend of mine, an activist, a journalist of Novaya Gazeta, an openly gay man, a citizen of Uzbekistan - Ali Feruz,” wrote Ivan Kondratenko, who works with Amnesty International in Moscow.

“I don’t know if Ali will survive in Uzbekistan," Kondratenko wrote. "Homosexuality is a crime in this country punished by years of imprisonment.”

Nurmatov is currently in a Moscow detention center, but has ten days to appeal the ruling. Read more via Moscow Times