EU Court upholds Syria sanctions on entities linked with Rami Makhlouf

The EU General Court has dismissed three applications to annul EU-Syria sanctions listings of Souruh SA, Almashreq Investment Fund and Drex Technologies SA. See judgments: T-440/16, T-415/16 and T-414/16.

In each case the Court found the EU had sufficiently proved that the three companies were listed for being controlled or owned by EU-designated Rami Makhlouf under Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/840. Regulation 36/2012.  Regulation 36/2012 permits the EU to include members of the Makhlouf families in its targeted Syria sanctions list. The General Court held that since the asset freezing restrictions freeze the assets also of entities owned or controlled by people on the list (which include Rami Makhlouf), the listing criteria must include the entities owned or controlled by those people.  In all three cases the Court said the applicant companies had not seriously contested the fact that Mr Makhlouf owned or controlled the companies at issue (Souruh SA, Almashreq Investment Fund and Drex Technologies SA).

For more information on Syrian sanctions and current regulations, see here, and for all related judgments see here.