Syrian sanctions on George Haswani annulled

The General Court of the EU has just annulled targeted sanctions on George Haswani, because the evidence the EU Council relied on in court did not provide any support for the reasons it had given for including him in the EU’s targeted sanctions on Syria – Case T-231/15 Haswani v Council [2017]. Mr Haswani was included for being an “important Syrian businessman”, co-owner of an engineering and construction company that has ties with the Syrian regime, for being an intermediary with the regime in oil contracts, and enjoying favourable treatment from the regime through Stoytransgaz, a Russian oil company. The Court, after a detailed analysis of all the evidence put forward by the Council, concluded that the evidence it relied on was vague and general and did not substantiate the reasons given for his inclusion.

The Court rejected Mr Haswani’s claim for damages resulting from his unlawful EU listing because he had not demonstrated that the losses he claimed were caused by the imposition of EU sanctions. The Court also rejected his challenge to subsequent amended sanctions relating to him because he had not properly amended his pleadings to challenge those measures.