Search
Case C-239/12 P Abdulrahim v Council
The General Court of the European Union has recently adopted a number of orders declaring that there is no need to adjudicate on applications for annulment in terrorist sanctions listing cases on the basis that the names of the applicants have been removed from the lists imposing restrictive measures while their cases were pending (Orders in Cases SIR; Petroci; Fellah; Gooré; Afriqiyah; Ayadi; Dagher; El Fatmi; Attey; Ezzedine and Ghreiwati). The present appeal from the General Court by Mr Abdulrahim was the first such case to come before the Court of Justice and was heard by the Grand Chamber in December 2012.
In his Opinion delivered today the Advocate General has proposed that the Court should: (1) set aside the order of the General Court and (2) refer this case back to the General Court for it to rule on Mr Abdulrahim’s action for annulment.
The AG agreed with the appellant that he has a continuing interest, notwithstanding the repeal of the contested act, in seeking the retroactive elimination of his inclusion on the list within the legal order of the EU in the context of the asset-freezing measures at issue, “which unquestionably have an adverse effect on the persons concerned not only by restricting the use of their property rights, but also by publicly designating them as being associated with a terrorist organisation.” Thus, “an applicant has a continuing interest, in spite of the repeal of the European Union act at issue, in having the courts of the European Union recognise that he should never have been included on the list at issue or that he should not have been included according to the procedure which was adopted by the European Union institutions.”
The judgment of the Grand Chamber is awaited.
Philip Moser QC of Monckton Chambers acts for the Appellant.