Supreme Court rules in favour of Bank Mellat
Bank Mellat, Iran’s largest private bank, was wrongly included on the Iran nuclear sanctions list, the Supreme Court has ruled.
In two linked judgments, nine justices held by majority that the Treasury must lift sanctions against the bank, dismissing claims that its banking services facilitated Iran’s nuclear programme, and said appeal courts should go into closed session only where “it has been convincingly demonstrated to be genuinely necessary in the interests of justice”.
The court held a “closed material procedure” (CMP) for the first time in this case, to hear sensitive material about the bank, in Bank Mellat v HM Treasury [2013] UKSC 38; 39.
The controversial Justice and Security Act 2013 expanded the use of closed courts into the main civil courts.
Delivering judgment, Lord Sumption said the bank received no notice of the listing: “The duty to give advance notice and an opportunity to be heard to a person against whom a draconian statutory power is to be exercised is one of the oldest principles of what would not be called public law.”
Sarosh Zaiwalla, senior partner, Zaiwalla & Co Solicitors, which acted for the Bank, says: “The judgment will put enormous confidence in the independence of the British judiciary.”
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