In recent months, the US has added several judges and International Criminal Court prosecutors to the list of “Specially Designated Nationals” maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for enforcing US international financial sanctions. On July 9, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, joined them on the list.
The individuals listed have had their assets frozen in the US, and American nationals and companies are prohibited from doing business with them. Neither criminals nor fugitives, but rather respected professionals in international law who have been sanctioned – not for wrongdoing, but for carrying out their duties, in ways that are clearly displeasing to Washington.
This development is not just a diplomatic affront; it is an alarming signal. A small but growing number of European citizens – who are innocent under all legal standards of the European Union (EU) – also appear on the OFAC list. They are not under investigation in their own countries. No court has convicted them. And yet, they and their families have been treated as pariahs. Not only in the US, but – more seriously still – in their own countries, within the EU itself.
These individuals have become Europe’s living dead: legally alive, but erased economically and socially. They are victims of a kind of “civil death” penalty. Their inclusion on the OFAC list, often for opaque or arbitrary reasons, triggers a cascade of consequences far beyond American borders. It is in Europe that banks close their accounts; that IT companies cut off access to email, software, and cloud services; that delivery companies refuse to drop packages at their door. Families have been ruined. Careers destroyed.
However, it is perhaps understandable that people subject to OFAC sanctions should be restricted in their travel to, or trade with, the US. After all, it is the prerogative of the US government to exercise sovereignty on its own territory. It is unacceptable, however, that European citizens – some of them above any suspicion in the eyes of their own authorities – lose everything at home due to excessive caution on the part of European companies. These businesses blindly enforce US sanctions. Two trends explain the phenomenon.
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