Luxemburg, 18/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - In two judgments, Chafiq Ayadi and Faraq Hassan v Council of the EU, the EU Court of First Instance says that the European Community has competence to order the freezing of individuals' funds in the context of the battle against international terrorism and that individuals can ask the Member State in which they are resident or whose nationality they hold to present a request to the UN Sanctions Committee for review of their cases. Should the Member State refuse to send a case to the UN Sanctions Committee and should the individual believe this refusal to be wrongful, he/she may bring an action for judicial review before the national courts, says the Court.
Chafiq Ayadi, a Tunisian national resident in Dublin, and Faraq Hassan, a Libyan national, held in Brixton Prison, were added to the Community list, the first in October 2001 and the second in November 2003. Both men asked the Court their name from the list.
The resolutions of the UN Security Council calling on UN Member States to freeze the funds and other financial resources of persons and entities associated with the Taliban, Usama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network are implemented in the Community through regularly updated Council regulations. According to a specific procedure, a request to have one's name removed from the list may be made through the State of residence or nationality of the person concerned. The judgment gives some clarification relevant to the rights of individuals who make a request for removal from the list. The Member State which submits the request must: - ensure that the persons concerned can argue their point of view; - not refuse to initiate the review procedure solely for lack of information; - present cases “without delay and fairly and impartially” to the UN Sanctions Committee.
These judgments partly derive from the Ahmed Ali Yusuf judgment (see EUROPE 9032) which explains the articulation between UN law and Community law in the fight against terrorism.