Brussels, 07/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 4 February, the Court of the EU upheld (joint cases T-174/12 and T-80/12) the sanctions put in place by the Council in 2012 against the Lebanese bank Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank (SLCB) due to its links with the Syrian state bank Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS) and its involvement in funding the Syrian regime.
In its ruling, it rejects the application by the bank for the cancellation of the acts of the Council keeping it on the list of entities covered by restrictive measures against Syria. Although it deemed the bank's action acceptable, even though the bank did not use the legal deadline to react to the notification of its maintenance on the list, the Council rejected its argument as to the substance.
According to the European judges, the Council: - respected the obligation to provide reasons for its decision: the capital link between SLCB and CBS is enough in itself to establish the fact that the bank was placed on the list due to its status as a subsidiary of CBS, even in the hypothesis that the second part of the reason (SLCB's involvement in funding that Syrian regime) is not specific enough; - correctly considered that SLCB is involved, at least indirectly, in funding the Syrian regime: this is shown, amongst other things, by the control exercised by CBS, whose support for the regime has been confirmed, over the board of directors of SLCB (the bank is 84.2% owned by CBS); - respected the rights of the defence: SLCB was informed of the decision to include it on the list and was able to defend itself effectively, even if the reasons for its inclusion were notified to it after its first inclusion on the list. (FG/transl.fl)