Oligarch's complaint about search of his yacht inadmissible
The Federal Constitutional Court has declared a complaint by the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov regarding the search of a yacht to be inadmissible. The competent senate did not accept a constitutional complaint for decision, as the court announced in Karlsruhe on Thursday. The decision was already made in mid-November (1 BvR 1498/23).
In September 2022, two properties on Lake Tegernsee and one in the Taunus as well as the yacht "Dilbar" in Bremen were searched, which the public prosecutor's office attributed to Usmanov. The searches were in connection with European Union sanctions against Russian nationals in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the investigators, Usmanov is said to have moved a multi-million sum and thus violated the EU sanctions. He is considered a confidant of Russian head of state Vladimir Putin.
The oligarch felt that the search of the motor yacht violated his fundamental right to the inviolability of his home and, due to media reports following the search, his general right to privacy.
However, the Federal Constitutional Court considers the constitutional complaint to be manifestly inadmissible. The complainant had not exhausted the necessary legal channels due to the media reports and had first appealed to specialist courts. In addition, he had not sufficiently explained that the motor yacht was part of his "spatial privacy" and that the search warrant therefore violated his fundamental right to inviolability of the home.
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Despite the oligarch's argument that the search of his yacht infringed upon his right to home inviolability and privacy, the Federal Constitutional Court determined that his complaint was premature due to insufficient exhaustion of legal channels and lacking clarity on the yacht's role in his spatial privacy. Further, the courts had not yet reviewed the lawfulness of the search itself in the context of EU sanctions against Russian individuals.
Source: www.ntv.de
