EU Court Rejects Syrian Businessman's Bid for Removal From Sanctions List

The EU General Court on June 12 rejected Syrian businessman Issam Shammout's challenge to his designation under the bloc's Syria sanctions regime. Shammout, an executive for airline company Cham Wings Airlines and the Shammout Group, was sanctioned due to his position as a "leading businessperson operating in Syria."

Shammout claimed that the Council of the EU failed to adequately state the reasons for his listing. The businessman said that the council's statement of reasons were purely formal and reflected a failure to assess the specific facts in his case. The court rejected the claim, finding that the council laid out the reasons for Shammout's listing "in a sufficiently clear manner to enable the applicant to understand them."

The businessman also said he wasn't afforded sufficient judicial protection since the council didn't tell him about a certain piece of evidence before the case was brought. The court said this didn't impact his right to "effective judicial protection," since he had access to the document before the council asserted its defense.

Shammout challenged the council's finding that he was associated with the Syrian regime, claiming that the fact that the Syrian government seized his property due to his failure to pay debts was sufficient to sever any association between him and the foreign state. The court said this doesn't "manifestly reveal an action taken by the Syrian regime in retaliation for actions which the applicant allegedly took against that regime," and is thus not sufficient by itself to rebut the presumption of a link with the foreign state.

The court said Shammout failed to supply "any evidence from which it may be concluded that he was not, or was no longer, associated with the Syrian regime, or that he did not exercise influence over that regime." Instead, he merely haggled over evidence supplied by the council, without providing any evidence to show he has no ties to the Syrian regime, the court found. The decision added that the council used reliable materials, despite a challenge from Shammout on this front, which included Syrian and Western news reports.

Shammout lastly challenged the proportionality of the sanctions. The court also rejected this claim, finding that the sanctions were apt due to the "overriding importance of the protection of civilian populations in Syria."