EU court upholds LTTE sanctions listing

3 December 2021 10:25 pm

The EU General Court dismissed an application brought by the European Political Subdivision of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to annul the 2019 and 2020 acts maintaining the inclusion of the LTTE on the EU’s terrorist sanctions list.

The Court said the Council could rely on the decision by the UK Home Secretary in 2001 to list the LTTE because the government was a “competent authority” for these purposes and the EU had a duty to review whether the 2001 assessment still justified the listing in 2019.

The Court found that the EU had sufficiently justified the listing in 2019 – 2020 and rejected the argument that the LTTE could not be classified as a ‘terrorist organisation’ for the purposes of Article 1(3) of Common Position 2001/931.

Judgment T-160/19