PRETORIA, October 9. /TASS/. The Supreme Court of Appeal of the Republic of South Africa has ordered the mandatory enforcement of a Moscow arbitration court ruling in the bankruptcy case of Google LLC Russia in South Africa, a court representative told TASS.

"The October 1 ruling obliges Google International LLC to reimburse 10 billion rubles (approximately $100 million) in dividends received from Google LLC Russia, which declared bankruptcy in the summer of 2023," the court representative said.

During the hearing in the South African court, it was noted that this amount was transferred outside Russia to evade the Google subsidiary's obligations under a ruling issued in the spring of 2023 by the Moscow Arbitration Court, which obligated Google to unblock the YouTube channel of the Russian public Orthodox television channel Spas.

The order from the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa to enforce the Moscow Arbitration Court's ruling has been transferred to bailiffs for recovery of funds.

The current ruling by South Africa's highest arbitration court could expedite the consideration of other aspects of the Spas TV channel's lawsuit against Google in the country.

Last spring, the Gauteng High Court granted permission to seize the assets of the South African subsidiary of Google in the country in connection with a lawsuit related to the blocking of the YouTube channel of the Russian public Orthodox television channel Spas. The Spas YouTube channel, which had over a million subscribers, was blocked in the spring of 2022.