I also wanted to know from the Bundesbank how it ensures that
- that the Doğru family’s rent payments can be settled so that they do not become homeless?
- that the members of the Doğru family will not lose their health insurance coverage?
- That Mr. Doğru is being subjected to legal proceedings because he is no longer able to fulfill financial obligations he entered into before the sanctions were imposed?
Background: The Frankfurt am Main District Court recently rejected an urgent application by Doğru. He wanted his bank, Commerzbank, to allow him to pay insurance bills, debt collection agency fees, and similar expenses from his account. Due to sanctions, Doğru is prohibited from earning money, and no one is allowed to send him money or goods. He is also prohibited from leaving the country. He is not accused of any legal violations.
According to a report in the Berliner Zeitung, the court argued:
“While the German Bundesbank allowed the journalist to use €506 per month for basic needs, payments exceeding this amount were not covered. The judge found that Dogru had not credibly demonstrated that the transfers he planned – for example, to service providers and debt collection agencies – served to ‘satisfy basic needs.’ At the same time, the court emphasized that the bank was bound by EU sanctions law. The relevant regulations apply directly in the member states and oblige credit institutions not to release frozen funds. Even if this has serious consequences for the individual concerned, it is ‘in the nature of the matter,’ since Dogru is subject to these restrictive measures.”
Reminders, debt collection proceedings, and rising costs are the result, Doğru told the newspaper. It could even come to the point where “the bailiff is at the door or criminal charges are pending.” Several legal proceedings for outstanding debts are already underway. The court’s findings indicate that the Bundesbank is not providing Doğru with sufficient funds to cover mandatory payment obligations from existing contracts, beyond the €506 allocated for basic needs.
The Bundesbank ‘s response does little to counter this impression:
“The Deutsche Bundesbank is the competent authority in Germany for receiving notifications and granting authorizations concerning funds related to EU financial sanctions. Natural persons subject to EU sanctions whose funds are consequently frozen may, under strict conditions, receive authorization to release frozen funds to the extent necessary to meet their basic needs. Basic needs include essential expenses for food, accommodation, clothing, heating, healthcare, and the like, and strict standards apply. The question of how much frozen funds can be released for these purposes cannot be answered generally, as the circumstances of each individual case must be considered. However, the standard rates under German social legislation can serve as a guideline. Regardless of whether a “basic need” exists, frozen funds can also be released if a sanctioned person owes payments to a third party under contracts (such as a loan agreement) concluded before the date the sanctioned person was listed.”
We ask for your understanding that we cannot answer your questions beyond these general explanations. All information that the Deutsche Bundesbank receives or collects in the course of its activities as the authority responsible for implementing EU financial sanctions must be treated confidentially and may only be used for the purposes for which it was transmitted to it or for which it collected it.
The Bundesbank points out that it can release funds to fulfill existing contracts, but says nothing about actually doing so. While this doesn’t rule out the possibility that it does, the proceedings in Frankfurt suggest that it isn’t doing so to a sufficient extent.
If one takes the Bundesbank’s answer literally, sanctioned individuals can only be granted funds to cover their own basic needs, not to cover the needs of family members. This would fit with the collective punishment aspect of the medieval-seeming EU sanctions. This could mean that family members can and must access their own resources or apply for social assistance to cover their living expenses. €506 is the standard social assistance allowance for a married person.
I find it deeply outrageous and appalling that not only members of the German government and their accomplices in other EU governments, but also appalling judges and compliant Bundesbank officials in Frankfurt, needlessly become accomplices of a sanctions regime that suppresses freedom of expression and the media and makes a mockery of the rule of law. I wonder how they can look themselves in the mirror in the morning. Presumably, they tell themselves that they are only following the law, even though deep down they know it is wrong.
