EU Court says no presumption that Syrian businessmen support the regime; HX v Council

We have blogged on a number of cases in which the EU Court has upheld the Council’s assumption that prominent businessmen in Syria support or benefit from the Syrian regime (see e.g. here). The 7th Chamber of the General Court held last week that the Council could not make that assumption in Case T-723/14 HX v Council (link to judgment of 2 June 2016 here, so far only in French). HX (the court granted him anonymity) was added to the EU’s Syria list in 2014 on the grounds that he supports and benefits from the regime as a prominent businessman in the oil & gas sector. The applicant did not dispute that he was a businessman, but denied that he supported or benefitted from the regime. Since the Council had no evidence that he did, the listing was annulled.