Luxembourg, 14/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - In conclusions delivered on 8 May in the case C-117/06, the Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi expresses the opinion that European anti-terrorist regulations do not allow the transfer of property ownership to any person who has links to a terrorist organisation, even if the sales procedure has begun before the purchaser's name is placed on the list of persons belonging to such organisations.
In December 2004, Berlin solicitor Karl Alich had his request refused for a property to be recorded in the Berlin-Neukölln land registry, the Grundbuchamt, as belonging to his client Mr Ageel A Al-Ageel, on the grounds that this latter was named on the list of persons and bodies linked to Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban (regulation (EC) 881/2002). The Advocate General advises that the question of whether Mr Ageel and his co-purchasers can recover the €1,214,318.22 paid into an account which has been frozen since February 2001, be referred by the Court to the Kammergericht Berlin, the High Court of the Berlin Region.
Had the solicitor submitted the full request to the Grundbuchamt before July 2004, the date when Mr Ageel's name was added to the said list, the purchase would, in all probability, have gone through without hindrance. When asked by EUROPE why it had taken so long, Mr Alich stressed that it was not unusual for such a transaction to take three or four years, and that the length of time taken in this case was in part due to changes in arrangements among the purchasers. (cd)