Top EU court rejects appeal against Iran's Bank Mellat
The European Union's top court has ruled that the assets of Iran's Bank Mellat had been unfairly frozen from 2010, citing an "error of law."
The European Court of Justice on Thursday dismissed an appeal brought by the European Council, saying that Bank Mellat's funds should not have been frozen between July 2010 and January 2016:
The European Council, which groups the EU's 28 member states, froze the funds of a number of Iranian financial entities from 2010, claiming they contributed to the Iranian nuclear and missile programs.
The top EU court said that it rejected the reasoning linking the bank to Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
The top court found that there had been "an error of law" made.
"Since all the measures concerning Bank Mellat have been annulled, its funds are deemed not to have been frozen between 26 July 2010 (date of first freezing measure) and 16 January 2016 (date on which the freeze was lifted),” the court said.
In 2013, the General Court, a second-tier of the European Union Court of Justice, accepted Bank Mellat's contention and prompted an appeal to the European Court of Justice.
After winning the EU ruling, the Bank Mellat said on Thursday that it could pursue damages against Britain.
"The significant aspect of this ruling is that anybody who has been a victim of unlawful listing, or who considers themselves, can now bring a claim," Bank Mellat's lawyer, Sarosh Zaiwalla, said.
On January 16, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany started to implement a nuclear agreement they had concluded in July 2015.
After the agreement went into effect, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the UN Security Council and the US were lifted.
The ruling on Bank Mellat is the first in favor of an Iranian company since sanctions on the Islamic Republic were lifted.
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