Court rejects confiscation of clan properties
The public prosecutor's office in Berlin suffers a bitter defeat in the legal dispute over apartments and houses attributed to a clan of Arab origin. The regional court rejects the confiscation of the 77 properties worth millions. An appeal is possible.
The Berlin Regional Court has rejected the confiscation of several clan properties. The court stated that it could not be proven that the houses had been financed with money from criminal activities. The seizure of the properties and other assets of the now 27-year-old owner was lifted. According to media reports, the man is said to belong to a clan of Arab origin. The ruling, which was issued on Tuesday, is not yet legally binding.
The proceedings were based on allegations of money laundering against the 27-year-old. In 2019, the public prosecutor's office accused him of having invested money from criminal offenses in the purchase of the properties. The origin of the money had thus been concealed. The properties and other assets were seized during the proceedings. In 2020, the investigation was dropped on suspicion of money laundering due to a lack of sufficient suspicion.
The trial for eight properties in Berlin began in January. The public prosecutor's office assumed that the young man from a well-known extended family of Arab origin bought the properties or acquired shares in them from 2015 to 2019 with money from criminal activities. In one of the cases, he had made a purchase worth around one million euros as the owner of a company. The man's lawyer denied this during the trial.
A total of 77 properties worth millions of euros, which are attributed to the Berlin clan, were provisionally seized in a spectacular operation in July 2018. Police and prosecutors assumed that these houses, apartments and plots of land had been bought with money from criminal activities. Cash deposits from abroad and bank transfers are also alleged to have been involved. A decision by the regional court on several of the properties is already legally binding.
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- Following the ruling, international legal experts have expressed concern over the potential impact on real estate investments in Berlin, given the high-profile nature of the case and the involvement of a criminality allegation.
- The public prosecutor's office has also faced criticism for its handling of the case, particularly its decision to pursue confiscation based on presumptions rather than concrete evidence.
- In light of this judgement, international arbitration tribunals may consider similar cases involving confiscation of property in Germany, as they may now see a weakening of the stance of German law enforcement agencies against alleged money laundering and criminality in property transactions.
Source: www.ntv.de
