EU Court rejects Yanukovych appeals to lift sanctions – Politico

Ukrinform reports this with reference to Politico.

The European Union first imposed sanctions on Yanukovych in 2014, banning him from travelling to the EU and freezing his assets. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU reimposed sanctions on the ousted president.

Yanukovych appealed to the EU’s highest court, asking that the measures be annulled on the grounds that the bloc had imposed restrictions at a time when, according to him, no criminal case had been opened against him in Ukraine and there was “no concrete evidence.”

However, on Wednesday, the General Court of the EU, part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, dismissed his action in a judgment excoriating his tenure as Ukraine’s president.

In the 18-page decision, the court stated that Yanukovych’s actions as head of state had “clearly contributed to the destabilization” in Ukraine, and that the EU was right to include him on its sanctions list under its legal criteria.

The court further noted that Yanukovych could not “distance himself effectively from the Russian authorities” after leaving office, highlighting his “involvement in a plan” to oust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2022.

Sanctions were also imposed against Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr due to his extensive business operations in Russian-occupied Donbas. On Wednesday, the court rejected his parallel appeal to lift these restrictions.

As reported earlier by Ukrinform, in December 2023 the Court of Justice of the European Union annulled sanctions imposed two years prior by the EU Council against Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr.