10:59, 29 June 2018

French authorities change Kerimov's status to a witness

Suleiman Kerimov. Photo: screenshot of ntv, http://www.ntv.ru/video/top/596008/

In France, the criminal case against Suleiman Kerimov, a Senator from Dagestan, accused of violating the procedures to purchase real estate objects, is not closed, but he is granted the status of a witness, the Prosecutor's Office reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 20, 2017, Suleiman Kerimov was detained in France and charged with laundering money and evading taxes. In December 2017, the court released Suleiman Kerimov on bail of 5 million euros. On June 28, it was reported that all charges had been dropped from him.

"The case is still being investigated ... We are carefully analyzing the decision of the investigative chamber," reported Vanessa Perret, the representative of the General Prosecutor's Office of France at the Court of Appeal in Aix-en-Provence, as quoted by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta".

In the legal practice of France, an assisted witness is an intermediate status between a witness and a defendant. Such a witness cannot be placed under house arrest or in a pre-trial detention cell.

Forbes includes Suleiman Kerimov, a native of Derbent, in the top 300 richest people in the world.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 29, 2018 at 03:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.