MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - A court rejected an appeal by opposition leader and writer Eduard Limonov that he be allowed to pay the Moscow mayor a $19,000 compensation award in installments, Limonov's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov took Limonov, founder of the banned National Bolshevik Party and member of the Other Russia opposition coalition, to court last October over claims he made on Radio Liberty that the Moscow courts were under Luzhkov's control.

A Moscow court subsequently found in favor of Luzhkov, and Limonov was ordered to pay 500,000 roubles ($19,160) in compensation to the 72-year-old mayor. However, Limonov declared that he did not have sufficient funds to pay.

Court bailiffs then confiscated property belonging to Limonov to the value of 15,000 roubles. He was also banned from leaving the country.

Limonov appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in June, claiming that the Moscow court had infringed article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights on freedom of expression.

Around 5,500 Muscovites have been prevented from leaving the country since the beginning of the year over the non-payment of debts, the head of the Moscow department of the Federal Service of Court Bailiffs said on Wednesday.