Police on the Island of Jersey have admitted that they conducted unlawful searches at premises allegedly linked to Russian-Israeli businessman Roman Abramovich and have agreed to pay damages and apologize.
The searches were carried out at premises allegedly connected to Abramovich in April 2022 and following a judicial review they were found to have been unlawful.
Jersey's Royal Court ruled that the “Search Warrants shall be declared unlawful, the Search Warrants shall be formally quashed, the States of Jersey Police shall pay damages to the Applicants in accordance with the terms of the Confidential Schedule appended to this Order [and] the States of Jersey Police shall pay the Applicants’ costs of and incidental to these proceedings.“
Association with the Kremlin
In March, the UK added Abramovich to its list of sanctioned individuals based on allegations that his “wealth and connections are closely associated with the Kremlin.”
The search warrants were executed a few weeks later. Shortly afterward, Abramovich and his associates filed a complaint against the Jersey Police, which returned the materials it had seized. Even before the settlement, the Jersey Police deleted any mention of the search warrants from its website.
“Mr. Abramovich has always acted in accordance with the law," A spokeswoman for Russian mogul said. "We are pleased that the Jersey Police have conceded in relation to these unlawful and unfounded searches.”