Sir, Sean O’Neill’s Thunderer, “Blanket sanctions on oligarchs were not best for Britain” (Jun 20), raises the issue whether the government is playing fair with sanctions. Sanctions deprive individuals of their right to use or enjoy their assets and are penal in form. The legislation is an administrative order determined by the Foreign Office and avoids the usual criminal procedures that determine whether penal measures should be used against an individual. A criminal court in receipt of evidence should decide whether a person is a supporter of Vladimir Putin or materially supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Such a process would avoid discrimination and sanction people for what they had done. This would reflect the values of a fair and just society.

The plain fact of the matter is that many individuals have been sanctioned based upon evidence that would not be acceptable in a criminal court. The use of sanctions to support foreign policy objectives, pioneered by the United States, undermines the rule of law, a concept that the United Kingdom proudly claims it supports.

Steven Kay KC
Head of 9BR Chambers, Gray’s Inn