MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. /TASS/. The packed schedule of judicial hearings on the case of Russian billionaire and owner of the AS Monaco Football Club Dmitry Rybolovlev at Monaco’s Court of Cassation may indicate that pressure is being cranked up on the court, Rybolovlev’s attorney, Thomas Giaccardi said on Tuesday.

In an interview with Monaco-Matin, Giaccardi pointed to the haste in the hearings at the Court of Cassation, which has been given a couple of months for that. "I cannot help thinking that some sort of pressure is being exerted on the court, which still has to decide whether it is legal to use SMS messages sent from the lawyer’s telephone to my client," he said, adding that there have been a lot of investigative procedures over the past year and "there was no reason why it couldn’t have waited for one more month."

He also explained why his client had refused to answer all the 600 questions asked by the investigators. "We agreed to this position more than a year ago all the while, the court has failed to pass a judgement on the validity of using Tatiana Bersheda’s mobile phone as evidence. We even took the trouble in writing to state our position to the judge. So, the whole affair could have been settled in a couple of minutes. However, the policeman asked all the questions," the lawyer said.

He also wants to dispel rumors that Rybolovlev is seeking to evade justice by fleeing from Monaco. "We have judicial control imposing only one obligation on those accused and that is to have no contacts between each other. The only exception was made for Dmitry Ryboloblev and Tatiana Bersheda since she is his lawyer," Giaccardi noted.

In his words, he usually meets with the Russian billionaire in Monaco, Switzerland, Paris or London. "Dmitry Rybolovlev [travels] everywhere, including in the United States where he has a lot of business obligations," he added.

Dmitry Rybolovlev, 51, who is ranked 18th on Forbes’ list of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia in 2018, was detained in Monaco for questioning on November 6. His apartment at the Belle Epoque luxury building in Monaco was searched. Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tatiana Bersheda and several senior judicial officials of Monaco were detained, too, on suspicion of complicity in corruption.

After being questioned, all those involved, including the wife and son of Monaco’s former Justice Minister Philippe Narmino, were set free the following day, under court supervision. According to Nice-Matin newspaper, Rybolovlev faces charges of active influence peddling, active corruption and complicity in the breach of confidentiality of inquiry.

Monaco-gate

A year ago, Monaco’s ex-Minister of Justice, Philippe Narmino, an influential figure in Monaco’s political circles, had to resigned in what the French press dubbed ‘Monaco-gate’ shortly after Le Monde’s publication alleging that the minister had received presents from Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and had spent leisure time at his Swiss residence. Shortly after stepping down, Narmino was taken into temporary custody.

Le Monde and other French media claimed that Rybolovlev and his team had exerted serious pressure on Monaco’s investigative bodies and police to help him secure a favorable outcome in a litigation with Swiss art dealer and collector Yves Bouvier.

The Russian mogul claimed Bouvier had overpriced 37 artworks by famous early 20th century artists and thus had swindled him out of about one billion euro. Bouvier, in turn, claimed that Rybolovlev had colluded with Monegasque police to "lure" him to Monaco to be arrested.