The General Court of the European Union ruled on Jan. 28 to lift economic sanctions on five former allies of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Asset
freezes were removed for former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his son
Oleksii Azarov, a former lawmaker, ex-First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy
Arbuzov, former lawmaker Serhiy Klyuyev, the brother of Yanukovych’s chief of
staff, and former Energy Minister Edward Stavytskyi.
“A person
cannot be treated as being responsible for the misappropriation of funds solely
on the ground that he is the subject of a preliminary investigation in a third
country, without the Council (of Europe) being aware of the matters alleged
against that person in that investigation,” the Luxembourg-based court said in
a news release.
An appeal can be filed within two months of the ruling.
Restrictive
measures were annulled for the period of March 6, 2014 to March 5, 2015.
However, a separate asset freeze on the officials from last year is still in
force through March 6 – except in the case of Oleksii Azarov, whose name was
removed – as well as for 13 other former Yanukovych allies, including the
disgraced ex-president.
Current
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has alleged that Yanukovych, who fled to
Russia on Feb. 22, 2014, embezzled as much as $37 billion from state coffers.
Last
October the EU dropped restrictions on former security service chiefs Oleksandr
Yakymenko and Ihor Kalinin, as well as former presidential adviser Andriy
Portnov.
The EU
court ruling comes as President Petro Poroshenko’s personal choice for top
prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, has been accused
of repeatedly sabotaging efforts to reform the nation’s moribund law enforcement
system, and of covering up graft.
