Brussels, 17/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU made fundamental procedural errors when, in 2006, it placed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the EU list relating to frozen funds of terrorist organisations, states the General Court of the EU on Thursday 16 October (joined cases T-208/11 and T-508/11). The judges annulled the Council decision while temporarily maintaining the effects in order to leave the member states time to correct their errors.
The LTTE are a Tamil independence movement which opposed the government of Sri Lanka in a violent confrontation before its defeat in 2009 brought an end to a civil war that had lasted nigh on 27 years. The LTTE are currently considered by the EU to be a terrorist organisation and, as such, have had sanctions imposed on them. The EU bases its position, inter alia, on decisions of Indian authorities. The LTTE contested their maintenance on the list of organisations whose funds have been frozen in the EU, advancing two arguments. Firstly, they submit that their confrontation with the government of Sri Lanka was an “armed conflict” within the meaning of international law, subject only to international humanitarian law and not to anti-terrorist legislation. And secondly, the Council decision to apply sanctions was based on unreliable grounds which do not derive from decisions of “competent authorities” within the meaning of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP.
The Court rejected the first argument but accepted the second. The EU may impose sanctions on an organisation on the basis of the prevention of terrorism within the framework of armed conflicts within the meaning of international law, the European judges ruled. However, while the Council may base its action on the opinion of the authorities of a third country, as happened here with the Indian authorities, it must carefully verify at the outset that the legislation of the third state ensures protection of the rights of defence and of the right to effective judicial protection equivalent to that guaranteed at EU level. The Court found that the Council did not carry out any such “thorough examination”. The Council in part justified its maintenance of the LTTE on the list of terrorist organisations on the basis of facts reported by the press and online, and not on the basis of evidence examined and accepted by competent authorities. Thus, the Council committed a procedural error, the Court concluded. (JK)