Azerbaijan’s Financial Monitoring Service has updated its domestic and international sanctions registers following a UN Security Council decision; the assets of listed persons must be frozen immediately. The update follows a January 16, 2023 decision by the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on ISIL and Al-Qaida.
The Financial Monitoring Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan has revised its sanctions list under Article 5.2 of the Law on Targeted Financial Sanctions. The updated list of individuals and legal entities has been published on the agency’s official website, www.hms.gov.az.
The domestic list is compiled on the basis of rulings by Azerbaijani courts, while the international list follows decisions adopted by relevant committees of the UN Security Council. Such registers typically include individuals, organizations and companies linked to terrorist activity, the financing of terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other serious crimes.
How the asset freeze will work
Under the law, parties bound by these obligations must immediately block all funds belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities. This covers assets owned or controlled by them directly or through intermediaries, as well as any income generated from those funds.
Funds belonging to other individuals acting on behalf of sanctioned persons, and to entities under their subordination or influence, must be frozen under the same procedure. All such measures must be taken without prior notice and without delay.
Parties with these obligations must immediately notify Azerbaijan’s State Security Service and the Financial Monitoring Service of any asset freeze via the hms.gov.az portal. The purpose of targeted financial restrictions is to cut off sanctioned individuals’ access to funds and economic resources.
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