The European Union’s top court took a step on Thursday towards confirming the removal of Hamas and the Tamil Tigers from an EU terrorism blacklist, despite protestations from Israel and the Sri Lankan government.
The EU “cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than on decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing,” saidEleanor Sharpston, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice, whose advice is usually followed by judges.
She recommended that they reject an appeal by the Council of EU member states against the lower General Court’s decisions in late 2014 to remove both movements from the sanctions list due to flawed procedures.
At the time, Israel, which has had fraught relations with the EU in recent years, recalled Europeans’ treatment of Jews in the Holocaust and denounced the bloc’s “staggering hypocrisy”.
The United States has urged the maintenance of sanctions on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip and has fought Israel for three decades.
The Sri Lankan government had said in 2014 that it would provide the evidence which the court found lacking to support sanctions against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
In both cases, judges of the General Court ruled that EU leaders relied too heavily on media reports rather than their own investigations when they imposed asset freezes and travel bans dating back 15 years on members of Hamas and the LTTE.
The assets have since remained frozen pending the appeal.
The EU Council’s appeal also cited the lower court’s failure to accept its argument that the groups’ presence on the U.S. terrorism list justified sanctions. Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston concluded, however, that the EU could not assume that other countries gave those it listed sufficient right of appeal.
The EU’s terrorism list was approved after the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001. It allowed the bloc to freeze groups’ financial assent and stepped up the cooperation between police and justice officials
As of now, the list consists of 23 groups, including the Kurdish militant PKK, the military wing of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups such as Islamic Jihad. Hamas was added to the list in late 2001.
Hamas has always described itself as a resistance movement rather than a terrorist group, though its charter says its members are pledged to destroying Israel through jihad. Apart from the EU, the US, Canada and Japan consider Hamas a terrorist organisation. (with DPA, Reuters, RT)
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