Somehow, Bushra al-Assad, Bashar's sister and widow of Assef Shawkat, got around to appealing against the sanctions as regards her. If you're not keeping score, Assef Shawkat was himself a senior figure in the regime and was killed in a 2012 bomb attack by the rebels. Anyway, among her rejected grounds for appeal were --
The General Court rejects Ms al-Assad’s arguments that, as a non-working mother, she does not perform any public or economic function, and that her children are now at school in the United Arab Emirates. The General Court finds that the fact that Ms al-Assad’s children are at school in the United Arab Emirates is not sufficient for her to be regarded as having dissociated herself from the Syrian regime and as having been forced to flee the country. There may be many other reasons for a change in Ms al-Assad’s residence, such as the deterioration of the security situation in Syria.
It's just as well the court ruled this way, because by her logic, any connected figure to any sanctioned regime would have a roadmap to exempt themselves from sanctions.
Since sanctions look to be about all that Europe has in its quiver against Russia, this stuff is important.
Photo: Michael and Connie Corleone/