Alisher Usmanov has filed a lawsuit with the German Federal Constitutional Court over a search that took place on the Dilbar yacht last fall. According to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, the businessman's lawyers argue that the search on the yacht violates the billionaire's right to "inviolability of the home" and is "an attack on human dignity." They also believe that there are no grounds for the EU sanctions imposed against the billionaire

Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov (8th place in the Forbes rating, worth $14.4 billion) filed a lawsuit with the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany because of the search that took place on the Dilbar yacht in the port of Bremen in the fall of 2022, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper writes.

As the publication points out, in a 67-page lawsuit, lawyers for businessmen complain about a warrant issued by the Munich Regional Court. A search on a yacht based on it violates the billionaire's right to "inviolability of the home" and is an "infringement on human dignity," the lawsuit says.

It also says that there are no grounds for imposing sanctions against the billionaire, and the paragraph of the law itself, which the businessman is accused of violating, is unconstitutional. According to this paragraph, Usmanov himself had to report on the assets belonging to him after being included in the sanctions list. This paragraph violates the right not to testify against oneself, the businessman's lawyers point out.

The newspaper notes that consideration of the claim is unlikely to be quick. Judges at Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe usually take several months to decide whether to reject or accept a complaint, Usmanov's lawyer points out. At the same time, more than 90% of complaints filed with the court are rejected.

Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said last April that the Dilbar superyacht belonged to Gulbahor Ismailova, who the agency called Usmanov's sister.

The businessman is suspected in Germany of tax evasion, money laundering and violation of EU sanctions. Last fall, German police raided a villa they believe Usmanov owns. Reuters wrote that they were connected to a possible circumvention of sanctions, as well as a money laundering case. Prosecutors in Frankfurt said the Russian businessman, who was not named, allegedly used "an extensive and complex network of companies and corporations" to hide the origin of money in several transactions worth millions of euros between 2017 and 2022. In May, a Frankfurt court ruled that searches at facilities linked to Usmanov were illegal. “We expect that the persecution of Usmanov in Germany will be stopped,” a representative of the businessman told Forbes after that.

Usmanov came under personal EU sanctions in February 2022, a few days after the start of Russia's "special operation" in Ukraine. In an explanatory note to the EU sanctions, Usmanov was described as "an oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin." Usmanov refutes this, he challenged the introduction of European sanctions against him in court.