A Fiji court has ruled that the United States can seize a Russian-owned superyacht, 21 days after the luxury vessel Amadea arrived in the Pacific island nation and was detained by police.

US authorities assert that the Amadea is ultimately owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.

The US Justice Department’s Taskforce KleptoCapture has focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets to put the finances of Russian oligarchs under strain in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off his invasion of Ukraine.

Fiji’s High Court ruled it would grant an order to register a US seizure warrant, but it also allowed the defence, acting for the Amadea’s registered owners Millemarin Investment, time to appeal the law.

Until this is resolved, the $436 million boat will remain berthed at Fiji’s Lautoka Wharf with its crew of about 25 rotating on and off the vessel, while a police officer remains on board to ensure it stays put.

According to Boat International, the Amadea is 106 metres long and was built in 2017. It features a stainless-steel albatross that extends off the bow and weighs more than 5 tons, a live lobster tank in the galley, a 10-metre pool, a hand-painted Pleyel piano and a large helipad.

The defence argues that the boat does not belong to Kerimov, but instead to fellow Russian billionaire Eduard Khudainatov, the former chairman and chief executive of Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil and gas company. Khudainatov, crucially, has not been sanctioned.

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“There is some indication that American authorities are wanting to take this boat away,” Defence lawyer Feizal Haniff told the ABC outside the court. “[The judge] said we have a right to appeal, and obviously he said that we will ensure that the boat is in Fiji while the stay application is filed.”