Brussels, 24/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - In case T-348/13, on Wednesday 24 September, the General Court annulled the Council decisions in 2013 and 2014 to keep Ahmed Mohammed Qadhaf Al Dam, cousin of Muammar Qadhafi, on the list of persons subject since February 2011 to restrictive measures put in place by the EU against Libya and persons linked to it.
The judges ruled that the Council had not justified the reasons for keeping his name on that list from 2013 to 2014, as the situation was substantially different from the one in which the measures were adopted in 2011.
In February 2011, Qadhaf Al Dam was included on the list of persons linked to the regime of Muammar Qadhafi by virtue of their family relationship, and as it was believed that he held a key role in external security organisation and was involved in planning operations against Libyan dissidents abroad and in terrorist activity. He was made subject to a freeze on his funds and a ban on entry into, or transit through, the territory of the EU. These restrictions were maintained in 2013 and then again in 2014 for the same reasons. Qadhaf Al Dam, however, sought the annulment of the measures, arguing that the reasons stated for their imposition were unrelated to the situation in Libya at the time and with the objectives pursued.
The Court found partially in his favour. It notes that, while his action for the annulment of the 2011 decision was inadmissible because it was lodged too late, his appeal against his maintenance on the list in 2013 and 2014 was well founded. The Court notes that the reasons given by the Council in 2011 - which have remained unchanged since - do not explain why Qadhaf Al Dam's name was retained on the list in 2013, that is to say, nearly a year and a half after the fall of the regime. In particular, the Council failed to provide any justification that he still represented a threat to restoring civil peace to Libya.
However, the Court will suspend the effects of its judgment until after the date for bringing an appeal or, in the event that an appeal is lodged, until the Court of Justice has delivered its judgment. The immediate annulment of the measures in question would enable Qadhaf Al Dam to transfer out of the EU all or part of the assets he holds there, thereby threatening to undermine seriously and irreversibly the effectiveness of any decision to freeze funds that may be adopted by the Council in the future. (FG)