The Hamburg District Court issued a ruling on Alisher Usmanov's lawsuit against the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, satisfying the businessman’s claims and recognizing several statements about him as defamatory. This was reported by RBC, citing Usmanov's press service.
The decision was announced on January 23. The court established a fine of up to 250,000 euros for each violation of the prohibition, and in case of non-compliance, administrative arrest of up to six months for each instance and up to two years in total may be imposed.
Representatives of Alisher Usmanov stated that the court prohibited FAZ from disseminating claims that the billionaire allegedly used his funds "in the interests or at the behest of the Kremlin," as well as informally representing Russian interests in Uzbekistan and interfering in the editorial policy of the newspaper "Kommersant" after its purchase in 2006.
Additionally, as Usmanov's lawyers explained, during the proceedings, the court for the first time in European jurisdiction prohibited the dissemination of statements based on investigations by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which had previously been recognized as false by a Russian court. In particular, this concerns materials from the film "He’s Not Dimon to You," which claimed that Usmanov transferred real estate to people close to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The billionaire's lawyers regarded this decision as an important precedent for judicial practice in Europe.
This is not Usmanov's first successful ruling in German courts. In the spring of last year, the Hamburg court prohibited the dissemination of information about the alleged bribery of judges of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), reported by the German television channel ARD.
In 2024, the same court prohibited the American publication Forbes from publishing statements that Usmanov allegedly was a "front man" for Vladimir Putin and "solved his business problems."
