The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added two individuals and one entity to its Libya sanctions regime and amended one entry, in a May 13 financial sanctions notice. Mohamed Al-Kani and Abdurahem Al Kani were added to the list for their serious human rights abuses in Libya, along with the al-Kaniyat militia on the grounds that the group has committed shocking violations of international humanitarian law. In addition, OFSI updated the individual listing of Aisha Muammar Muhammed Abu Minyar Qadhafi, updating her Libyan passport number.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed designations from three people and one entity earlier this week (see 2105110030) after the agency determined that “circumstances no longer warrant” their inclusion on sanctions lists, a May 13 notice said. The agency removed sanctions from Syrian military official and Brig. Gen. Jami Jami, Netherlands-based entity Staroil B.V. and two other people: Alexander Hollebrand and Paul Van Mazijk. The people and entities were previously listed under OFAC’s Syria sanctions regime.
The European Council announced that a group of third countries aligned with the bloc's sanctions regime on ISIL and al-Qaida and with the February sanctions on Myanmar due to the recent military coup in that country. In May 11 and May 12 news releases, the EU said North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned themselves with the Myanmar sanctions. It said the same group, minus Norway and with the additions of Armenia and Georgia, also levied sanctions against ISIL and al-Qaida and the persons, groups, undertakings and entities associated with them.
The State Department designated Yu Hui, a former Chinese government official, for human rights violations, the agency said May 12. The State Department announced the designation along with its release of the 2020 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. The agency said Yu is the former office director of the so-called Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven people and two entities for drug trafficking, the agency said May 12. The sanctions target Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas and Gonzalez Penuelas Drug Trafficking Organization (Gonzalez Penuelas DTO), which is “among the largest sources of raw opium gum and heroin” in northern Mexico. OFAC also sanctioned six people and one entity for their ties to Gonzalez Penuelas DTO: Ignacio and Wilfrido Gonzalez Penuelas, Efrain Mendivil Figueroa, Adelmo Nunez Molina, and Raul and Juana Payan Meraz, and construction company City Plaza, Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable.
The European Commission published guidance May 11 for individual and business compliance with recent sanctions on Myanmar put in place due to the February military coup and subsequent protest crackdown. The sanctions are composed of financial sanctions, a travel ban and limited sectoral sanctions that include an embargo on exports of arms equipment that may be used for internal repression, dual-use goods for use by the military and Border Guard Police in Myanmar, and equipment for monitoring communications. The guidance details who must comply with the provisions, what the terms of the provisions stipulate, how to determine ownership of sanctioned activity and exceptions to the sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 11 designated seven people connected to Hezbollah and its financial firm Al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH). The sanctions target Ibrahim Ali Daher, the chief of Hezbollah’s Central Finance Unit, and AQAH officials Ahmad Mohamad Yazbeck, Abbas Hassan Gharib, Wahid Mahmud Subayti, Mostafa Habib Harb, Ezzat Youssef Akar and Hasan Chehadeh Othman.
In two separate decisions, the European Union General Court dismissed two applications from listed individuals urging the court to annul the acts maintaining their designations on the EU's sanctions list. In an April 28 order, according to an unofficial translation, the court rejected a bid from Syrian businessman Ammar Sharif to depart from the sanctions list because he had failed to rebut the notion that he is no longer an “influential businessman” conducting business in Syria. Sharif did not present sufficient evidence to dispute the European Council's assessment on three of his business activities in Syria, leading to the court's decision.
The U.S. extended national emergencies authorizing sanctions against Iraq, the Central African Republic and Syria, the White House said May 6. The White House said actions in all three countries continue to “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
Following the Department of Justice's first resolution of action under a new export control tool, greater efforts should be made to conduct export-related due diligence and act on those recommendations, according to a May 6 analysis from Sidley Austin. Merely conducting audits of exports and sanctions is not good enough anymore, Sidley said. Implementing audit recommendations and putting in place a robust process to receive, investigate and elevate whistleblower complaints should be a priority following the DOJ's settlement with German software company SAP SE.