
The Hamburg Regional COURT has banned publications by the media holding Mediahuis Luxembourg SA from referring to businessman Alisher Usmanov as the owner of the superyacht Dilbar, which was arrested in the port of Hamburg in 2022, and has deemed the reports to be false, the businessman's press service reported.
They noted that if the injunction is not complied with, the defendant may be subject to an administrative fine of up to €250,000 for each violation, and if the fine cannot be collected, administrative arrest for up to six months for each violation and up to two years in total.
The disputed section of the article has been removed from the Luxembourg Times website.
Mediahuis Luxembourg is a leading Luxembourg publishing house. Its portfolio includes newspapers and portals such as Luxemburger Wort, Luxembourg Times, and others.
Since 2023, Usmanov's lawyers have obtained ten court rulings and injunctions against other publications that attributed the businessman's ownership of property in Germany. The billionaire's representatives have proven that the property is held in irrevocable trusts and belongs to their managers.
"Despite their legal invalidity, and the fact that they were subsequently removed or edited, these articles were nonetheless mentioned in investigative materials and EU documents on sanctions against our client," media lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel, who represents Usmanov, explained to RBC.
According to the lawyer, “the fact that the EU prosecutor’s office and sanctioning bodies are relying on discredited and court-banned media materials raises serious concerns about procedural violations.”
The EU imposed sanctions against Alisher Usmanov on February 28, 2022. On March 3 of that year, the US and UK announced restrictions against the businessman, and CANADA did the same on March 11. In April, reports emerged of the detention of the 156-meter yacht Dilbar, believed to be linked to Usmanov, in the port of Hamburg. Following this, the businessman became the subject of an investigation into tax evasion in Germany due to, according to his lawyers, falsely claiming ownership of real estate and other assets.
Usmanov's lawyers began pursuing refutations of these allegations in court. A number of foreign media outlets and public figures were forced to sign written pledges to cease disseminating unlawful information. In particular, Usmanov won a lawsuit against an American magazine.FORBES , the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, the Austrian newspaper Kurier, and major German television and radio broadcasters RTL and ARD / Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
In April 2025, the German publication Münchner Merkur deleted 15 articles about Alisher Usmanov and his sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, some of which were included in the EU sanctions dossiers.
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