EU General Court Annuls Relisting of Former Libyan Agriculture Minister Under Gadhafi

The European Union's General Court annulled the 2019 and 2020 relisting acts for Libya's former minister for agriculture, animal and maritime resources, Abdel Majid Al-Gaoud, in a Sept. 15 order. The judgment removes Al-Gaoud from the EU's Libya sanctions regime. The former minister died in March 2021 and was delisted by the EU the following month. The court said that the European Council should have taken Al-Gaoud's circumstances into consideration when deciding whether to relist him in that he stopped being minister with the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime and was held in prison 2011 to 2017. The court also reasoned that Al-Gaoud's position as a former minister did “not have a sufficiently solid factual basis” that justified keeping him on the sanctions list. Had the council simply relied on his position as a former minister, his status would have been “frozen” and the council's periodic review provided for in listing measures would have had no practical effect, the court said.