Success Stories
Sheikh Yassin Abdullah Kadi
Mr Kadi has never supported any terrorist activity or group and has never been indicted for or charged with any crime.
Yet within a month of the terrorist atrocity in New York on 11 September 2001, the Saudi philanthropist and businessman found himself mistakenly sanctioned around the world, by the UK, US, EU and UN.
His assets were frozen, a travel ban was imposed, and he was unable to access any information or evidence for the sanctions.
Mr Kadi challenged these decisions, receiving no substantive explanation or response.
I represented Mr Kadi in his successful appeals to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2008 and 2013.
In 2008 the ECJ delivered a landmark decision in his favour and struck down the EU sanctions for breaching Mr Kadi’s fundamental human rights.
As a result, the UN Security Council in December 2009 created the Office of the Ombudsperson.
The ECJ’s judgment, which has become known as Kadi I, has been described by leading academic commentators as “the most important judgment ever delivered by the ECJ on the relationship between EC and international law and one of its most important judgments on fundamental rights.”
Mr Kadi told a conference in London in November 2024 that without Guy Martin he would “still be under a travel ban and I would not be here today”.
His Majesty Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor María de Borbón y Borbón of Spain
The former King of Spain faced lurid and unwarranted allegations concerning alleged conduct that included conduct which pre-dated his 2014 decision to abdicate the throne.
I represented His Majesty in the defence of a claim brought against him in England by a former partner, the Danish businesswoman Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. Ms. Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn claimed £126 million for alleged harassment.
I spent time with the King and then pursued his argument that the English court lacked jurisdiction to hear the claim and that as a sovereign he was immune from suit.
The Court of Appeal agreed, and in December 2022 it upheld the King’s claim to sovereign immunity, overturning a previous High Court decision. The Court explained that even after a Head of State leaves office, they continue to enjoy immunity for acts performed in their public capacity while in office.
The judges also said that even if the court had had jurisdiction, they would have dismissed the case as having no real prospect of success.
Former Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Elsayed Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa
After the Arab Spring of 2011, the prosecutor of the Arab Republic of Egypt devised a series of investigations into the Mubarak family and their conduct which were strongly believed to be politically motivated.
In consequence, His Excellency, Former President Mubarak was wrongfully subject to sanctions by the European Union, along with his sons Gamal and Alaa and their families.
I mounted a series of lengthy and substantial challenges in the General Court of the EU, culminating in a high profile and widely publicised December 2020 appeal in the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe.
The sanctions were annulled, with the Court ruling that they were unlawful from the outset. The Council of the EU failed to verify observance of the rights of the defence and the right to judicial protection in the Egyptian proceedings that formed the basis for the sanctions.
The UK removed Mr Mubarak and his family from its sanctions list, and in March 2021 the EU lifted all remaining sanctions. In April 2022 the EU General Court annulled later sanctions which had been imposed on the family.
Nizar Assaad, Syrian businessman
For many years I have acted for Nizar Assaad - a Syrian businessman - who was listed based on mistaken identity by the Council of the EU.
Because of the sensitive nature of the allegations, it was an urgent matter of life and death that his name be cleared. He also wished to continue his business.
I made applications and representations to the EU Council and commenced an annulment action before the court in Luxembourg, travelling to Dubai and Brussels working with EU legal advisers.
Mr Assaad was delisted. Then in 2021 the EU Council inexplicably put his name back on the list. I therefore took further action and commenced a second annulment application before the General Court. Following a court hearing in 2022, I secured a favourable judgment in 2023, and Mr Assaad was finally delisted once more.