The European Court of Justice(ECJ) is due to decide on Wednesday whether to keep Hamas listed as a terror organization. The listing is important because it keeps various Hamas funds frozen, limits Hamas from openly doing business in the EU and limits the mobility of Hamas-affiliated persons.
Although the US lists Hamas as a terror organization, the idea of the EU listing Hamas as a terror group has already received two major blows in recent years.
In 2014, an intermediate EU court ordered the EU’s executive branch to remove Hamas from its list of terror groups. The EU, which wants to list Hamas as a terror group, appealed that ruling.
In September 2016, the advocate-general of the European Court of Justice, whose advice is usually followed by the judges, recommended that the court uphold the lower court ruling and remove Hamas from being listed as a terror group.
In the 2016 recommendation, Advocate-General Eleanor Sharpston said that EU governments should independently present evidence on attacks perpetrated by the groups, and that information from outside countries such as the US was not sufficient.
“The council cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the Internet,” The Wall Street Journal quoted Sharpston as saying.