The Munich I public prosecutor confiscated three apartments from two Russian citizens. It is the first case of this kind in Germany.
In Germany, real estate has been confiscated for the first time on the basis of sanctions against Russia because of the war of aggression in Ukraine. As the Munich I public prosecutor announced on Monday, three private apartments in the Bavarian capital and the account for rent payments were confiscated.
A member of the Russian State Duma, abbreviated as L. by the public prosecutor’s office, and his wife, who is registered as residing in Munich, who was abbreviated as K., are affected. A spokeswoman for the prosecution did not want to provide further information on the full names of the two persons affected by the confiscation.
The public prosecutor explained that this was the first case in Germany in which not only assets were “frozen” due to the sanctions, but real estate was actually confiscated. Although there have been no comparable cases to date and there is no case law, the Munich I public prosecutor believes that confiscation is possible.
The step became effective through an entry in the land register made on Monday. The tenants of the apartments are allowed to stay there, but they now have to pay their rents of around 3,500 euros per month to the Munich District Court instead of the owners. The Federal Criminal Police Office supported the preparation and enforcement of the sanctions, the public prosecutor said.
The trigger for the blow was a letter from the Bavarian Ministry of Finance to the Bavarian Ministry of Justice at the beginning of May, according to which a check based on the EU sanctions lists revealed a match between the Duma member and his participation in a property community in Munich. The Ministry of Justice then alerted the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, which immediately began investigations.
L., who is a member of the State Duma, has been on the EU sanctions list since February 23. At that time he voted for the resolution calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent states. L. is registered with his wife as joint owners of the Munich apartments.
In the course of the investigation, it turned out that the wife earned rental income from a third apartment in Munich. As a wife, she should also be sanctioned according to the EU regulation, which is why the investigators’ blow affects all three apartments. Further investigations continued.
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