Bank Tejarat wins application to annul its EU sanctions listing

Bank Tejarat, an Iranian bank, has had its listing on the EU’s sanctions relating to Iran annulled by the General Court (First Chamber), in Case T-176/12 Bank Tejarat v Council (link to the judgment is here).

The Bank has been listed since 2012 on the grounds that it is a State owned bank that has facilitated Iran’s nuclear programme in various ways. The Bank denied all of these allegations (including majority State ownership) and the Court held that the Council had not provided any evidence to substantiate the allegations against the Bank.  The Court has maintained the sanctions on Bank Tejarat for 2 months to permit the Council to remedy these defects if it should seek to do so.