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Court rules to evict family from their Moscow house-1

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MOSCOW, March 23 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow district court has ruled to move a family from their private house in southern Moscow, a court source said Friday.

The Prokofyev mother and son were key figures in a high-profile confrontation last summer between city authorities and homeowners in Butovo over land on the outskirts of Moscow, intended for demolition to make way for high-rise apartment blocks.

"The judge decided to evict the Prokofyevs without the offer of a new apartment," a court spokesperson said.

The source said 1.544 million rubles ($59,000) would be paid to the Prokofyevs in compensation for their property.

District authorities earlier offered the family two single-room apartments in exchange, but the Prokofyevs refused.

It was the second time that the court had heard the case. After the first ruling to clear out their house came into effect last summer, the authorities forcibly moved the mother and her son into a one-room apartment, and attempted to demolish their wooden house. Local residents blocked a bulldozer from entering the territory.

The Prokofyev family was not given keys and documents authorizing their ownership of the new apartment.

A Moscow district court - many of which have a reputation of being friendly to the city's authorities - ruled earlier that the Butovo residents could be turfed off their property.

Residents of Butovo set up a tent camp, and kept a vigil there day and night, resisting forcible attempts by the authorities, bulldozers, and riot police to remove them.

Promises of compensation and new apartments were rejected, as residents said they had been notified of the plan for demolition too late, and that the new housing on offer could not compensate for the houses and land plots currently in their possession.

City Hall, however, argued that people in Butovo only have ownership rights to their houses, not to the land, which belongs to the city.

Butovo activists went to court and wrote open letters to President Vladimir Putin and the European Court of Human Rights.

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