MOSCOW, July 19 - RAPSI. A Yekaterinburg court has held in favor of Alexander Mokin, a wheelchair user who sought $3,000 from a restaurant which refused to serve him, on the alleged basis that his appearance could make other diners uncomfortable, Gazeta.Ru reports.

The judgment was passed on Tuesday, three months after the scandalous incident at the downtown Gallery restaurant. Mokin was seriously injured two years ago, when he dived into a river and hit the bottom.

Human rights activist and Mokin's attorney Anna Demenova said that her client wanted to celebrate his 28th birthday in the restaurant with his friends. Several hours before the party he called the restaurant to reserve a table and mentioned that he would be in a wheelchair. The manager accepted his reservation.

Nevertheless, he and his friends were stopped at the entrance by security guards and the manager came up to them and said that he would embarrass the other diners with his appearance.

He was denied access to the complaint book and the restaurant's registration documents. All he managed to obtain was a handwritten address and contact details.
"The management behaved arrogantly and improperly, making him wait around for a whole hour," Demenova said.

Mokin sent an email of complaint to the governor and the incident was picked up by human rights activists. Soon the restaurant's chief manager called him and promised to sort things out.

When it became clear that the promises to settle the matter and apologize were empty, we waited three weeks, prepared our lawsuit and took the matter to court," Demenova said.