Sep 2009 22

Calling All Terrorists0

I have, perhaps, misunderestimated the genius of the European Commission.

In November 2003, Mr Faraj Faraj Hussein al-Sa’idi was listed by the United Nations as being associated with Afghan terrorists. After attending a terrorist vocational training course in Afghanistan, according to a UN report he went to Italy to set up and lead a cell, and to coordinate a series of networks designed to facilitate killing people, particularly in the UK and the Netherlands. In 2006, a Milan court found him guilty of a plethora of activities such as fundraising, planning attacks, recruiting, obtaining forged documents, providing weapons and explosives – the usual terrorist work.

Roll on five years. A European Court of Justice case in 2008 came to the conclusion that the legal basis for the European Commission freezing funds of named supporters of terrorism was flawed. The Commission had used the old rubber article 308. Even the ECJ found this was highly suspect, as this clause was intended to provide a cover all for plugging gaps in the Single Market, and there is (beyond the metaphor) no trade in terror.

The ruling seems to have potentially opened a Pandora’s box for all manner of legal challenges to regulations passed under 308.

How has the Commission responded? With bureaucratic flair. It has published (2009/C 107/07) a "Notice for the attention of Mr Faraj Faraj Hussein al-Sa’idi". In it, it invites him personally to write to DG External Relations to express his views on why he should come off the black list.

Entrapment by return of correspondence. One wonders if it has yet been tried with Bin Laden.

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