The EU court has annulled sanctions against two Russian businessmen, Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman, after finding that the reasons cited by Brussels were invalid, AFP reports.
The European Union has imposed successive waves of sanctions on Russian citizens and businesses for benefiting from or playing a role in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But the Luxembourg-based EU General Court ruled in favor of the challenge brought by Aven and Friedman, major shareholders in Russia's key Alfa Bank, saying the reasons given by the European Council for targeting them "cannot be taken into account".
As a result, the court said it was "quashing both the original acts and the acts maintaining the lists of restrictive measures" against them, as they were set by the Council between early 2022 and early 2023.
The EU's sanctions list against Russia currently includes more than 1,700 individuals and 400 companies, including Alfa Bank.
Friedman, who also has Latvian citizenship, and Aven, who also has Israeli citizenship, were included on the EU sanctions list because of their connection to Alfa Bank.
Both claim that the evidence presented by the European Council, which represents the 27 EU Member States, is neither reliable nor credible.
The court agreed that the council's reasoning was "not sufficiently substantiated and therefore not justified".
It said the council's later acts upholding the sanctions against Friedman and Aven did not present "any additional evidence."
"They do not demonstrate that they supported actions or policies that undermined or threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine" or provided material support to or benefited Moscow's decision-makers behind the invasion.
There is an opportunity to appeal the decision, on the legal points only, within two months and 10 days.
Lawyers representing the two men hailed the ruling as "of the utmost importance".
"The court correctly found that all the charges against Michael Friedman and Peter Aven were completely unfounded," France-based lawyers Thierry Marembert, Aaron Bass and Roger Gerson said in a statement.
"Imposing sanctions against them was a counterproductive mistake," the lawyers said. "We hope that today's strong signal will be heard in the EU and beyond."
EU sanctions ban individuals from traveling to the European Union and prohibit EU citizens and companies from having financial dealings with them. /BGNES
