According to the FBC, the Supreme Court ruled that the yacht must leave the territorial waters of Fiji because it is in the “public interest.”
The Supreme Court of Fiji has allowed representatives of the U.S. authorities to transport the yacht Amadea, allegedly owned by Russian Senator Suleiman Kerimov, outside the territorial waters of the republic. This was reported on Tuesday by the local TV channel FBC with reference to the court decision.
According to the FBC, the Supreme Court ruled that the yacht must leave the territorial waters of Fiji because it is in the “public interest.” “The yacht, which has nothing to do with Fiji, must leave the waters of the republic so that we can avoid the costs [of keeping it in port],” Judge Kemal Kumar said, noting that Amadea’s parking had already cost the country’s government too much, and the U.S. authorities “pledged to compensate Fiji for the costs incurred.”
The judge also stressed that the yacht arrived in Fiji without permission and, most likely, “to avoid prosecution by the United States of America,” and therefore representatives of U.S. law enforcement agencies “can take Amadea and take her out of Fiji.”
The authorities of the Republic of Fiji detained the yacht on April 14 after it entered the exclusive economic zone of the state without proper permission. Local police officers began to find out the name of the owner of the vessel and the port of registry, stating that, according to preliminary data, the yacht belongs to the Russian Suleiman Kerimov, against whom sanctions were imposed by a number of countries. The U.S. Department of Justice sent a seizure warrant to the Fiji police, within the framework of which the yacht was arrested, but the arrest was later challenged by Millemarin Investment, which stated that the yacht belonged to it.
