Court voids freezing of alleged terrorist funds

(CN) — A European court ruled to unfreeze the funds of two suspected terrorists, overturning a United Nations Security Council regulation that froze their assets, for a second time, in October.
The Court of Justice ruled that the freeze on assets of terrorist suspects Chafiq Ayadi and Faraj Hassan violated their basic human rights to defense and property, "in particular, the right to be heard and the right to effective judicial review," a court press release states.
After Ayadi and Hassan made the European Union's suspected terrorists list in 2001 and 2004, respectively, the men filed for annulment in the Court of First Instance but were turned down. They then appealed to the Court of First Instance and won. But in October 2009, the European Commission adopted a new regulation retroactively freezing their assets.
Europe's high court set aside the judgments under appeal, comparing the case to a 2008 ruling that voided fund freezing for suspected terrorists. It annulled the original council regulation freezing Ayadi and Hassan's funds, finding it a "breach of the fundamental rights of the person concerned."

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