Safeguarding international justice from transnational repression

Motion for a resolution | Doc. 16338 | 29 January 2026

Signatories:

Mr Markus WIECHEL, Sweden, ECPA ; Ms Boriana ÅBERG, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Mr Denis BEGIC, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Jürgen COßE, Germany, SOC ; Mr Vladimir ĐORĐEVIĆ, Serbia, ECPA ; Ms Edite ESTRELA, Portugal, SOC ; Ms Patrícia FARO, Portugal, SOC ; Mr Gerardo GIOVAGNOLI, San Marino, SOC ; Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Mr Paweł JABŁOŃSKI, Poland, ECPA ; Mr Mattias JONSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Serhii KALCHENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Ms Olena KHOMENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Mr Max LUCKS, Germany, SOC ; Mr Oleksandr MEREZHKO, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Rónán MULLEN, Ireland, EPP/CD ; Mr Sigurður Helgi PÁLMASON, Iceland, SOC ; Mr George PAPANDREOU, Greece, SOC ; Ms Azadeh ROJHAN, Sweden, SOC ; Mr Michael RUBBESTAD, Sweden, ECPA ; Mr Frank SCHWABE, Germany, SOC ; Ms Jessica STEGRUD, Sweden, ECPA ; Ms Awet TESFAIESUS, Germany, SOC ; Ms Victoria TIBLOM, Sweden, ECPA

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Safeguarding the system of international justice from its weaponisation by authoritarian regimes and their proxies is now a central concern for the Parliamentary Assembly.

The misuse of international trust‑based legal systems threatens national security, financial integrity and international justice, including through abuses of anti‑money‑laundering and counter‑terrorist‑financing frameworks, INTERPOL notices and diffusions, and mutual legal assistance mechanisms.

For instance, in 2025, the Iranian authorities reportedly threatened Dutch Member of Parliament Ulysse Ellian by claiming that Iranian law applies to him in the Netherlands on the basis of his paternal Iranian origin, and that the office of Hannah Neumann, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the delegation for relations with Iran, was targeted by a sophisticated hacking campaign.

Similarly, Russian authorities and their proxies, including Alfa‑Bank, allegedly exemplify such practices by combining lawfare against the European sanctions regime. It is concerning that, in challenging European Union sanctions before the General Court, Alfa‑Bank demands an almost criminal‑trial level of individualised evidence, thus weakening sanctions as a political tool to hold Russian oligarchs and companies supporting the war against Ukraine to account.

Simultaneously, Russian Alfa‑Bank is instrumentalised by the government to seek INTERPOL Red Notices to pursue critics abroad, including Andrei Isaev, reportedly targeted after challenging an alleged corporate‑raiding attack by the bank.

This month in Venezuela, the regime issued a new set of INTERPOL Red Notices and bank account freezings against journalists and influencers, including Javier Romero, Marko Pérez and David Placer, who were accused of treason and hate crimes for celebrating the detention of Nicolás Maduro.

The Council of Europe member States and relevant international actors should develop a rapid response to such practices, reassessing the international trust‑based legal, police and financial architecture to protect national security, financial integrity and the system of international justice.