Natalia Rotenberg, the ex-wife of Russian oligarch Arkadi Rotenberg, sued in Nice for defamation for having denounced his alleged eviction from the couple's villa on the Côte d'Azur by alleged "Chechen terrorists", was released on Friday .

“My villa was seized by radical terrorists from Chechnya.

They kicked out my employees […], beat the guards and the manager […], changed the locks”, wrote the 41-year-old woman, married to Arkadi Rotenberg until April 2013, in a message published in July 2021 and always online.

"The sponsors are great Russian oligarchs," she added, assuring "that the [French] police were cooperating".

In early May, at the hearing before the Nice Criminal Court, Natalia Rotenberg was absent, as were her lawyers.

The prosecutor had demanded that she be condemned for defamation to pay “several thousand euros”.

But on Friday, the criminal court acquitted the oligarch's ex-wife on the grounds that "the disputed publication does not identify the SCI (civil real estate company)" which manages the villa.

The person referred to, namely Arkadi Rotenberg, "is not expressly named", added the court.

“I think we are going to appeal this decision,” reacted Me Sophie Jonquet, lawyer for SCI Shoshana.

“We will appeal this decision”

“Everyone knows that this villa belongs to SCI Shoshana and Arkadi Rotenberg.

For the general public, it is obvious that it is he who is targeted, ”added the lawyer at the bar of Nice.

Believing "a pity that the prosecution's requisitions were not followed", she recalled that a court decision was needed to compel social networks to delete an online video.

“Ms. Rotenberg does not live in the said villa and has sent people there who have no right or title to stay there,” pleaded Me Jonquet.

The manager of the SCI had in fact mandated a security company which had forced security agents mandated by Ms. Rotenberg to leave the premises.

The luxurious villa located on the paradise peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, very popular with Russian billionaires, has been unoccupied since 2014. It is the subject of international sanctions taken against oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Poutine after the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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