Targeted Sanctions and Restrictive Measures

Greg Johnson Solicitors has unrivalled expertise in representing clients who are the subject of sanctions or restrictive measures imposed at UN, EU and/or domestic level.

We have represented clients before the UN Ombudsperson, in the European Court of Justice, and in domestic judicial reviews of administrative decisions relating to sanctions.

We also undertake a great deal of work outside a conventional legal context, for example, advocating our clients’ cases in negotiations with various institutions of the EU and the UN or with government departments and law enforcement agencies in the UK, the USA and many other countries.

Examples of recent and ongoing work include:

• Representing prominent Saudi businessman and philanthropist Yassin Kadi in his worldwide, 13-year battle to challenge sanctions imposed on him in October 2001. The case included challenges to EU sanctions, leading to two landmark ECJ decisions, the first of which has been described by leading academics as “the most important judgment ever delivered by the ECJ on the relationship between EC and international law and one of its most important judgments on fundamental rights”. Mr Kadi was delisted by the UN’s Sanctions Committee on 5 October 2012. Following negotiations with the US Treasury, Mr Kadi was then finally removed from the Treasury’s list of “specially designated nationals” in November 2014.
• Representing global charity International Islamic Relief Organization in its successful de-listing petition to the UN Ombudsperson.
• Successfully applying to the General Court of the European Union on behalf of Sakher Al Materi for annulment of targeted sanctions imposed by the EU under its Tunisian sanctions regime.
• Representing Burmese national Pye Phyo Tay Za both in his action before the General Court, and subsequent successful appeal to the Grand Chamber of the ECJ, which annulled the EU’s asset freezing orders against him.
• Applying to the General Court of the ECJ on behalf of businessman John Bredenkamp and his companies for damages in respect of restrictive measures imposed by the EU under its Zimbabwean sanctions regime. Greg Johnson Solicitors is also representing Mr Bredenkamp in his ongoing judicial review in the English High Court concerning the UK’s nomination of Mr Bredenkamp for targeted sanctions by the EU.
• Acting for a number of clients challenging EU restrictive measures imposed under the Syrian sanctions regime including Mazen Al Tabbaa, who won his application for annulment of EU sanctions in July 2014.

By their nature, many of these cases include a reputation management element. Greg Johnson Solicitors’s unrivalled expertise in media law means that we are particularly well-placed to advise on such issues.