Insight : How European courts are dismantling sanctions on Iran | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/15/us-iran-nuclear-courts-insight-idUSBRE96E0LS20130715
Les pays européens de plus en plus déboutés par leurs propres tribunaux quant au bien-fondé des sanctions contre l’Iran.
In the years-long campaign to tie a web of sanctions around Iran and stall its nuclear program, the European Union may just have met its biggest obstacle: its own law courts.
.. Europe’s governments (...) have frozen their assets, refused visas and banned companies in the European Union from doing business with them. But dozens of those targeted have challenged the restrictions in court and some are beginning to win, embarrassing Europe’s policymakers and causing alarm in the United States.
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At the heart of the issue is the refusal by EU governments to disclose evidence linking their targets to Iran’s nuclear work. Doing so in court, they say, may expose confidential intelligence, undermining efforts to combat the program.
The courts have effectively rejected that argument, saying that if a case is to be made, evidence must be presented. Lawyers for the Iranians argue there simply is no evidence that proves any link to the nuclear program - a view supported by British judges who did review some secret material this year.
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“The chairman of the court asked the EU lawyers, ’can you show me the evidence?’. And they said ’no, it’s Iran, and you must presume there is evidence’,” Zaiwalla [& Co, a London law firm which has successfully represented Iran’s Bank Mellat in litigation against sanctions imposed by the EU] said.
“The judge was very upset and said ’this is a court of law and you cannot assume things’.”
In its January 29 judgment, using dense legal language, the General Court said the council of EU governments was “in breach of the obligation to state reasons and the obligation to disclose to the applicant ... the evidence adduced against it”.
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While the net of sanctions may have only been cut in a few places at this stage, dozens of other cases are in the pipeline. The concern among EU officials is that if a few more knots are untied, the entire sanctions netting could start to unravel.
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Et encore,
UK top court ruling threatens Western sanctions against Iran- ▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-iran-sanctions-idUSBRE95I19120130619
Western government sanctions against Iran suffered a big setback on Wednesday when Britain’s top court ruled that the government was wrong to have imposed sanctions on the biggest Iranian private bank over alleged links to Tehran’s nuclear program.
En français ▻http://fr.news.yahoo.com/la-justice-britannique-annule-les-sanctions-contre-mellat-190231420.h