Fourth Administrative Challenge at the Council of State against the Walloon Government

Key Arguments

The same arguments as the second and third administrative challenges were submitted by the claimants, namely the violation of relevant binding international and domestic law.

Additionally, in this procedure, the claimants submitted evidence, obtained through open-source intelligence, which clearly indicated that the Saudi National Guard were in possession of Belgian arms in Yemen, contrary to the government’s long-standing argument that the end users of its equipment were not involved in the conflict in Yemen.

The Council of State agreed with the claimants and suspended all contested licences.

It concluded that the government’s assessment had failed to adequately consider the clear risk that the goods could be used for internal repression or to commit serious IHL and IHRL violations in Yemen. The submitted evidence was a crucial factor in supporting the Court’s final decision that the Walloonian government had acted unlawfully in issuing these licences.