The EU has updated the listings for 3 associates of the former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, who are subject to sanctions for their alleged misappropriation of Ukrainian State funds: Vitalii Yuriyovych Zakharchenko, Viktor Ivanovych Ratushniak and Serhiy Vitalyovych Kurchenko (regulation, decision), adding that:
- the pre-trial investigations in the relevant Ukrainian criminal proceedings have been completed and indictments have been sent to Ukrainian courts for consideration of the merits of the cases; and
- Zakharchenko’s and Ratushniak’s listings have been updated to state that they have not involved defence counsels and “no violation of the rights of defence and the right to effective judicial protection can be ascertained in the circumstances where the defence is not exercising those rights”.
The General Court of the EU annulled the listings of former President Yanukovych and his son on the EU’s Ukraine (misappropriation of assets) sanctions list because the Council failed to establish the applicants’ rights to defence and effective judicial protection were respected by the Ukrainian authorities during the criminal proceedings upon which the Council relied, in particular the right to have their cases heard within a reasonable time.