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| Europe |
| EU may freeze more than 90 million in terror backers' assets |
| 2005-09-22 |
| The European Union's second highest court ruled on Wednesday that the bloc can freeze the assets of people on a United Nations list of suspected terrorists, throwing out complaints lodged by alleged al-Qaeda associates whose bank accounts were blocked by the EU. The plaintiffs claimed their human rights had been breached by the UN, who had put their names on the list without allowing them to mount a defence, and had subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment by leaving them without funds. The Court of First Instance said the EU had the power to freeze terror suspects' assets under its treaties, and, because the bloc was merely implementing a UN directive passed early this summer and enforcing decisions taken by the UN Security Council. "As they are required by the Security Council... these measures fall for the most part outside the scope of judicial review. They do not infringe universally recognised fundamental human rights," the court said. "The freezing of funds constitutes one aspect of the UN's legitimate fight against international terrorism," it stressed. The EU has a list of people whose assets the United Nations has recommended should be frozen for alleged links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime, which was believed to have sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Swedish resident Ahmed Ali Yusf and Yassin Abdullah Kadi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, and the al-Barakaat International Foundation in Holland, all on the EU list, appealed to the court, claiming the 25-member bloc had no right to freeze their assets. Wednesday's ruling which can be appealed at the European Court of Justice within two months - will strengthen the EU's hand in some 15 further cases due to come before the Court of First Instance. Other applicants include the Iranian Mujahadeen, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a university lecturer from the Netherlands. The decision, coupled with a new information system introduced by the international police agency Interpol, should put some much-needed punch into the EU's anti-terror fight: European police investigators regularly complain how a lack of cross-border communication hampers the detection and arrest of terror and other criminal suspects. Interpol's news computer system includes data on 328 people and 199 groups and is available to all of the UN's 184 member states, including the EU, Ulrich Kersten, Interpol's representative on the Security Council told Interpol's general meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, the German Deutsche Welle radio station reported. According to the UN, the potential frozen assets belonging to people in the database could amount to 90 million dollars worldwide. Last October, the US authorities and the UK's Bank of England authorised their countries' banks to freeze accounts held by the Jordanian al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid wa Jihad terror formation. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Golly. Now they have permission. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-09-22 11:41 |
| #1 Nice move. It only took 5 years. I wonder if the UN will consider sanctioning it's Congo office? How about just freezing the whole stanky place! (After we get our money out, of course. lol) |
| Posted by: Rosemary 2005-09-22 06:16 |