German court says raids against Russian-Uzbek oligarch unlawful -lawyers

The lawyers, hired on behalf of Usmanov by the Uzbek Embassy, said the suspicion of money laundering against their client "does not exist, has never existed and all search measures of the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt based on this suspicion were, without exception, unlawful". The court in Frankfurt confirmed that it was handling the case, but did not give details of the decision.

A German court has ruled that raids conducted last year at the Bavarian villa of Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov were unlawful, defence lawyers said in a statement on Friday. The lawyers, hired on behalf of Usmanov by the Uzbek Embassy, said the suspicion of money laundering against their client "does not exist, has never existed and all search measures of the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt based on this suspicion were, without exception, unlawful".

The court in Frankfurt confirmed that it was handling the case, but did not give details of the decision. The Munich prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In September, over 250 police officers searched an apparently abandoned lakeside villa in the upmarket Bavarian holiday town of Rottach-Egern as part of the investigation against Usmanov.

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