Family of Convicted War Criminal to Continue OFAC Lawsuit After Securing 1 SDN Removal

The U.S. last week removed sanctions from the son of a convicted war criminal about six months after he, his sister and mother sued the Treasury Department for taking too long to adjudicate their delisting requests.

Aleksandar Karadzic, the son of former president of the Serb Republic Radovan Karadzic, was removed from Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals List on Oct. 20 as part of a separate administrative proceeding with the agency, but his family members remain designated. Their lawyer said they plan to continue litigating the issue in court.

The family was added to the SDN List for allegedly helping their father -- convicted of war crimes by a U.N. international criminal court -- evade arrest, they said in a lawsuit filed May 2 against the Office of Foreign Assets Control. They each applied to be removed from the SDN List, but they said in the suit the delisting process was taking "inordinately long” (see 2305010023).

Although OFAC officially removed Aleksandar Karadzic from the SDN List on Oct. 20, their lawyer, Peter Robinson, told Export Compliance Daily that OFAC denied delistings petitions for his sister Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic and mother Ljiljana Karadzic. Robinson said they had waited three and a half years for a decision.

“We still plan on litigating all three cases in the hope of finally getting a judge to end OFAC’s practice of unduly delaying decisions on delisting applications,” Robinson said.

An OFAC spokesperson said the agency removed sanctions from Aleksandar Karadzic after he completed an “administrative delisting process” to be taken off the SDN List. “OFAC evaluates all requests for reconsideration from those on the SDN List and retains the right to reimpose sanctions restrictions on any individual or entity, should they meet the criteria for designation,” the spokesperson said.