The regional court of Hamburg found the claim that Alisher Usmanov, founder of the "USM" holding, is the owner of the yacht named "Dilbar" to be false. This information, among others, was distributed by publications under the control of Luxembourg's major media holding — Mediahuis Luxembourg distributed.
The German court deemed the claim about the ownership of the yacht as violating Mr. Usmanov's rights, and prohibited the distribution of such information. If this prohibition is violated, an administrative fine of up to 250,000 euros per instance may be imposed; if the fine is not paid — administrative detention of up to 6 months per instance and a total of up to 2 years of imprisonment may be imposed. Currently, the controversial article excerpt has been removed from the Luxembourg Times website.
Lawyer Joachim Steinhoefel, defending the interests of Alisher Usmanov, stated that the European Union (EU) prosecution and sanctioning authorities "relied on media materials that were prohibited and disreputed by the court." According to him, this "raises serious concerns about procedural violations."
In February of this year, Germany's DPA news agency retracted its report claiming that Alisher Usmanov's sister, Gulbahor Ismoilova, was the owner of the Dilbar yacht. The European Union had used this information as a basis for imposing sanctions against Ismoilova. Searches on this yacht were also conducted in 2022 based on that claim.
In April 2025, Germany's Münchner Merkur newspaper removed 15 articles about Alisher Usmanov and the properties alleged to belong to him from its website.
Abdulloh Sayyid
