Following the judgment of 12 December 2013 in Nabipour and Others v Council of the European Union (Case T-58/12) in which M Taher & Co represented the successful applicants, M Taher & Co received confirmation in October 2014 that the EU Council intended to relist Mr Gholam Hossein Golparvar. On 6 February 2015 M Taher & Co made an urgent application for judicial review on behalf of Mr Golparvar seeking injunctive relief from the Court to stop the UK government from voting in favour of re-listing Mr Golparvar at the EU Council meeting set to take place on 9 February 2015. The application was made in conjunction with NITC who had found itself in a similar position following its own successful judgment on 3 July 2014. Unfortunately, the Court declined to intervene and the application was dismissed. The potentially political element of the case was emphasised at paragraphs 80-82 of the judgment, and more specifically the last part of paragraph 80 where Mr Justice Green noted that “He [the witness for the Secretary of State] highlighted not only the political imperative of maintaining pressure upon the Iranian regime but also upon the need not to disrupt the delicate negotiations, to resolve the impasse between Iran and other world states, which are ongoing.” The full version of the Court’s judgment is available here.

M Taher & Co is aware of correspondence between the House of Lords European Union Committee and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in relation to Mr Golparvar’s case. The House of Lords Scrutiny Committee queried, amongst other things, the process for EU sanctions listings, and specifically queried if the FCO had considered the evidence provided by Mr Golparvar to contradict the EU Council’s proposed reason for re-listing him. The FCO’s response in relation to Mr Golparvar was enlightening and noted that “The increasing time gap between annulment and relisting risked opening the possibility of other parties portraying the imposition of restrictive measures against NITC and Mr Golparvar as new listings, rather than relistings. Any claim that new listings were being imposed could have negatively impacted on the Iran nuclear negotiations. Furthermore, it was desirable to relist NITC and Mr Golparvar before negotiations reached a more sensitive stage.” The letters are due to be published on the Committee’s website.

On 12 February 2015 the EU Council re-listed Mr Golparvar for the following reason: “Mr Golparvar acts on behalf of IRISL and companies associated with it. He has been commercial director of IRISL, as well as Managing Director and shareholder of the SAPID Shipping Company, non-executive director and shareholder of HDSL, and shareholder of Rhabaran Omid Darya Ship Management Company, which are designated by the EU as acting on behalf of IRISL.” This is despite Mr Golparvar providing evidence to show that he no longer has any ties to the companies in question and is now retired from all employment.

M Taher & Co continues to act on behalf of Mr Golparvar and further updates on this case will be published in due course.