UN Sanction List Weakened

Bern, 21.06.2016 - Switzerland violated the right to a hearing when implementing the UN Security Council Resolutions connected with the embargo on Iraq. That was the judgment passed by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by 15 votes to 2 and announced today in Strasbourg. The judgment is final and absolute, and upholds the decision in the same case made by a chamber of the ECHR on 26 November 2013. The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), which represented the Swiss Government before the ECHR, acknowledges the Grand Chamber judgment with interest.

In 2004, the then Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA, now the EAER) froze the assets of Iraqi citizen Khalaf M. Al-Dulimi and his company Montana Management on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003). In 2006, the FDEA confiscated these assets with a view to their transfer to Iraq. The appeals against the FDEA's rulings were rejected by the Federal Supreme Court, as the court