The EU General Court in a pair of July 26 orders annulled the sanctions acts listing Viktor Pshonka, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general, and his son, Artem, a former Ukrainian lawmaker, according to an unofficial translation. The elder Pshonka was originally sanctioned in 2014 for embezzling Ukrainian public funds, according to the EU Sanctions blog. The blog noted that the court said the European Council failed to show that the Pshonkas' rights to judicial protection were respected by Ukrainian authorities during criminal proceedings on which the council relied.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions moves made by bloc: one under its Syria restrictions regime and the other related to restrictions concerning cyberattacks against the EU.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on July 26 updated its general guidance on financial sanctions to update the section on the refusal of a license. See page 37 of the guidance for the updated language.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with the bloc's recent sanctions decision concerning Libya, the European Council announced. On July 10, the council required member states to take the necessary steps to facilitate the disposal of arms and related material seized by the EUNAVFOR MED IRINI naval mission on the high seas. The council also barred vessels flying a third-country flag, bound to or from Libya, from carrying arms and other goods covered by the EU Common Military List to or from Libya. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision.
The U.K. High Court of Justice Administrative Court recently dismissed an application from Russian businessman Sergei Naumenko and companies Dalston Projects and Prism Maritime, legal owners of the Phi superyacht, seeking to regain control of the vessel. The British secretary of state for transport in March 2022 seized the yacht under its Russia sanctions regime.
The U.K. amended two entries under its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list in a July 25 notice. The listings of Faysal Ahmad Bin Ali Al-Zahrani, ISIL's lead oil and gas division official, and Yazid Sufaat, founding member of Jemaah Islamiyah, were updated. Al-Zahrani's listing was changed to reflect that he is reportedly deceased; Sufaat's was changed to say he completed detention Nov. 20, 2019, and then served a two-year restricted residence order in Malaysia until Nov. 21, 2021. The measures follow similar actions by the U.N. Security Council this week (see 2307240016).
The EU and Singapore launched talks on a digital trade agreement, the EU's Directorate-General for Trade said in a July 20 statement. The deal will seek to "provide legal certainty for end-to-end digital trade and enhance protection for our people and companies in digital transactions," the release said, building on the EU-Singapore Digital Partnership and Digital Trade Principles reached at the start of the year.
The EU levied a seventh round of sanctions against the parties responsible for the continuing violence and human rights violations in Myanmar, the European Council announced July 20. The designations target union ministers for immigration and population, labor, and health and sports; two members of the State Administration Council; and the quartermaster general. The lone sanctioned entity is No. 2 Mining Enterprise, a state-owned company generating revenue for the Myanmar Armed Forces, the council said. The sanctions regime now covers 99 people and 19 entities.
The European Council in a July 20 notice extended the sanctions framework on Lebanon for another year. The restrictions will now expire July 31, 2024. The framework allows for the imposition of sanctions on people and entities responsible for "undermining democracy or the rule of law in Lebanon" by obstructing the political process, undermining the implementation of plans approved by Lebanese authorities or "serious financial misconduct."
The EU last week sanctioned 18 people and five entities under its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime due to their human rights violations in Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ukraine and Russia.