The General Court has annulled the listing of Mr Ayadi as regards EU terrorism-related sanctions on the same grounds as in the earlier Kadi II case.
Mr Ayadi’s UN listing (on the Al-Qaida sanctions list) had previously been annulled by the ECJ on appeal. He subsequently sought to have his relisting by the EU annulled. The ECJ referred the case back to the General Court, holding that Mr Ayadi had a continuing interest in bringing proceedings for annulment in spite of his having been delisted by then.
The General Court held as follows:
- Mr Ayadi’s submissions, which he had not made before the referral, were admissible as he “adhered to the core substance of his arguments” that he had made previously.
- The Commission had observed Mr Ayadi’s rights of defence “only in the most formal and superficial sense”, as had been the case in Kadi II. The Commission had not substantiated by any information or evidence the reasons given for the relisting: “…there is no information to be extracted from the statement of reasons from which it is possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that Mr Ayadi was materially linked to Al-Qaida on the date when he was included in the list at issue”.
- “Although it is not legally bound by [Kadi II], the General Court considers that it may be applied, by analogy, to Mr Ayadi’s case in the absence of any other information or inculpatory evidence concerning Mr Ayadi”. Based on the legal grounds which had already been stated in Kadi II, Mr Ayadi’s listing was consequently annulled, and the Commission was ordered to pay his costs (in this case, to refund his legal aid to the General Court).
Case T‑527/09 RENV Ayadi v Commission, 14 April 2015
