The Monaco Court of Appeal has dropped the criminal case against AS Monaco owner Dmitry Rybolovlev and his lawyer, Tetiana Bersheda.
The proceedings against Rybolovlev and Bersheda, which began in 2017, involved accusations of corruption and influence peddling. The case was built on evidence obtained from Bersheda’s phone by judge Édouard Levrault during a separate investigation related to a dispute between Rybolovlev and Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier.
The court found that the proceedings were initiated solely based on illegally obtained messages, violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to privacy. Following a similar ruling by the ECHR in Switzerland months prior, the Monaco legal system has now also dismissed the case.
Lawyers representing Rybolovlev and Bersheda, Martin Reynaud, Thomas Giaccardi, and Jacqueline Lafont, stated, “As we have consistently maintained throughout these seven years of inquiry, Dmitry Rybolovlev and Tetiana Bersheda have always asserted their innocence and confidently awaited the conclusion of this case.”
The legal team confirmed that all criminal proceedings against the pair are now over. “They are completely and definitively cleared,” the lawyers concluded.