MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors asked a Moscow court to seize the assets of US private equity fund NCH Capital in Russia, accusing the fund’s owners of financing Ukraine’s military forces, Kommersant daily said on Wednesday, citing the court’s documents.
NCH Capital did not reply to a request for comment.
Prosecutors filed a lawsuit on December 9 against the company NCH Capital as well as against its founders George Rohr, a US citizen, and Moris Tabacinic, an Austrian citizen.
Rohr and Tabacinic founded NCH in 1993.
AgroTerra, one of Russia’s top-20 agricultural landholders, owned by NCH Capital, was placed under temporary state management by a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2024.
Kommersant said AgroTerra’s assets in seven regions in central Russia were valued in the lawsuit at 73 billion roubles ($937.10 million). NCH Capital also holds agricultural assets in Ukraine, ranking as the country’s fifth largest landowner.
Russian prosecutors ask court to seize assets of US fund NCH Capital, Kommersant says
https://arab.news/8beb2
Russian prosecutors ask court to seize assets of US fund NCH Capital, Kommersant says
- Prosecutors filed a lawsuit on December 9 against the company NCH Capital
- AgroTerra owned by NCH Capital, was placed under temporary state management
Austrian lower house passes headscarf ban for under-14s in schools
- The ban, proposed by the ruling coalition of three centrist parties, was also backed by the far-right Freedom Party
- Amnesty International said it would “add to the current racist climate toward Muslims“
VIENNA: Austria’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools for girls under 14 despite uncertainty over whether the legislation will be ruled unconstitutional as a previous ban was five years ago.
The ban, proposed by the ruling coalition of three centrist parties, was also backed by the far-right Freedom Party, which was alone in calling for it to apply to school staff as well. The only party to oppose the proposed ban was the smallest in parliament, the Greens, arguing it violates the constitution.
Rights groups have criticized the plan. Amnesty International said it would “add to the current racist climate toward Muslims.” The body that officially represents Austria’s Muslims has called it an infringement of fundamental rights.
“This is not about restricting freedom, but about protecting the freedom of girls up to 14,” Yannick Shetty, the parliamentary leader of the liberal Neos, the most junior party in the ruling coalition, told the lower house.
“It (the headscarf) is not just an item of clothing. It serves, particularly with minors, to shield girls from the male gaze. It sexualizes girls,” he said.
The minister for integration, Claudia Plakolm of the conservative People’s Party, which leads the ruling coalition, called headscarves for minors “a symbol of oppression.”
Austria’s Constitutional Court ruled in 2020 that a previous ban, which applied to under-10s in schools, was illegal because it discriminated against Muslims and the state has a duty to be religiously neutral. Going against that principle requires special justification, it held.
Shetty said the government had commissioned a study that is still under way in an effort to meet that requirement, without elaborating on its content.
Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of the Neos said young girls were coming under increasing pressure from their families — and also from unrelated young boys — who tell them what to wear for “religious reasons.”
The Greens’ deputy parliamentary leader, Sigrid Maurer, agreed that is a problem, and suggested interdisciplinary teams including representatives of the Muslim community be set up to intervene in schools when “cultural tensions” flare.
