The High Court has ordered that the jurisdiction challenge in the $13.8bn dispute brought by jailed Russian businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov be heard this Autumn following a successful expedition application brought by the claimants.
In December 2022, Magomedov was sentenced to 19 years in jail for embezzlement alongside his brother, having already spent more than four years in prison in 2018 awaiting trial.
Magomedov, represented by Seladore Legal, claims he was wrongly imprisoned and that his business empire was manoeuvred into Russian state hands.
The claim was filed in July 2023 and has as many as 22 defendants, including several Russian state companies.
15 of the defendants have sought to challenge the English Court’s jurisdiction to hear the case.
The jurisdiction challenges were supposed to be heard in 2025 or later, but this week, Mr Justice Bright granted Magomedov’s application to expedite the defendants’ jurisdiction hearings, meaning they will now be heard in a single hearing on 10th September for three weeks.
The news means any full trial could be heard as soon as 2025. Simon Bushell, senior partner at Seladore, said: “Last September, our client, Ziyavudin Magomedov, a political prisoner in Russia, launched a $13.8bn legal action against Russian state entities and others from his prison cell.
“Since then, he has faced several major obstacles, as defendants have sought to resist and delay the case, by arguing that the English courts do not have jurisdiction to hear his claims.
“This is a well-worn tactic in English litigation. Deep-pocketed defendants do not relish serious scrutiny of their actions by the judges of our Commercial Court. Frequently, they look for ways to delay and ramp up costs for their opponents.
“The alternative might have led to a delay until October 2025 and Mr Magomedov will now have the opportunity to swiftly seek to remove one of the major obstacles in his path to justice.”
“In some cases, it is unclear where defendants say they would be tried more appropriately. It is tempting to conclude that they do not really care as long as it is not heard in England any time soon. In the wake of Alexei Navalny’s death, Mr Magomedov’s precarious position as a Russian dissident makes the question of timing even more critical.”
This is an article from The Lawyer.