"The European Court of Justice has dismissed an appeal by Ukraine against an order for it to pay the legal costs of President Viktor Yanukovych and his sons," the Joseph Hage Aaronson legal firm said in a statement.
In September, a European court ruled that the bloc illegally imposed sanctions on Yanukovych, his son and former head of the presidential administration Andriy Klyuyev in 2014, but confirmed legality of sanctions that were in place in 2015-2016.
The Ukrainian Justice Ministry had tried to intervene in the proceedings before pulling out. In 2015, the General Court ruled that Ukraine should compensate the legal costs invoked by the abortive intervention, a decision that was appealed by Ukraine a year later.
"This is an important ruling. Our clients challenged sanctions imposed by the EU in 2014 on the basis of one letter in which the Ukrainian authorities made politically motivated and unsubstantiated allegations. Their attempt to intervene in the EU sanctions proceedings, and to bring an impermissible appeal when ordered to pay our clients’ costs, is similarly politically motivated," Joe Hage, a Joseph Hage Aaronson lawyer, was quoted as saying by the firm.
Yanukovych was toppled in February 2014 following what many consider to be a coup in Kiev. New Ukrainian authorities accuse him of corruption.
