EU General Court Maintains Syrian Businessman's Sanctions Listing

The EU General Court in a June 22 judgment rejected the application from businessman George Haswani to annul the European Council's decision maintaining his listing on the Syria sanctions regime, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled the council gave sufficient precise and consistent evidence to show Haswani is an influential businessman in Syria given his interests in HESCO Engineering and Construction. This allowed the court to rule his listing should be maintained because Haswani failed to rebut the presumption that he is tied to the Syrian regime.