Belgian Court Rules Treasury Lacked Authority to Reject Release of Russian Assets

Belgium’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, ruled on 11 September that a July 2024 decision by the Belgian treasury refusing to release frozen Russian assets was unlawful, because the Administrator General of the Treasury did not have the legal competence to take it. The ruling was first reported by De Tijd.

The case dates back to January 2023, when Russia’s BCS Bank asked for securities and cash held at Brussels-based Euroclear to be unfrozen. The assets had been blocked under 2022 EU sanctions on Russia’s National Settlement Depository, and the treasury had said the bank failed to prove it had fully cut its ties with the depository.

The judgment does not mean the funds will automatically be released. A spokesperson for finance minister Jan Jambon said the government is studying the ruling and its possible consequences.

More than 200 petitions challenging treasury decisions on frozen assets and blocked transactions are pending before the court. Earlier reporting by OCCRP, De Tijd and Follow the Money found that much of the roughly €258 billion in blocked transactions and frozen assets belongs to unsanctioned investors and not to sanctioned Russian individuals or entities.

Article Credit: https://www.occrp.org/en/news/belgian-court-rules-treasury-lacked-authority-to-reject-release-of-russian-assets