The European Union’s highest court on Wednesday overturned a 2001 decision by EU governments to freeze the assets of a Saudi businessman and a Sweden-based charity suspected of funding al-Qaida terror groups.

The Court of Justice ruling breaks with a U.N. anti-terror order obliging U.N. member states to freeze assets of people and entities it believes suspect of funding terror groups.

The court acknowledged that the reasons for freezing the assets of Yasin al-Qadi and the Al-Barakaat International Foundation may be justified. But it said the order failed to offer those on a terror blacklist any legal rights to a judicial review under European law.

“The rights of the defense, in particular the right to be heard and the right to effective judicial review of those rights were patently not respected,” the court ruling said.

It is not clear whether EU nations, which set up a joint terror blacklist, will unfreeze the assets.

Yasin al-Qadi, head of the Saudi-based Muwafaq Foundation, appealed against the EU’s decision to freeze his assets. U.S. Treasury officials allege the organization is an al-Qaida front used to funnel millions of dollars (euros) to al-Qaida.

Al-Barakaat International also appealed, trying to get about 1 million Swedish kroner (US$152,247) unfrozen. Lawyers for the charity have said the money was being used to fund aid programs for families in Somalia.

Swedish lawyer Thomas Olsson, who represented Al-Barakaat in the case, welcomed the ruling and said, “We have to examine the judicial consequences of this verdict. The sanctions remain on a U.N. level,” he said in Stockholm.

Other suspects and groups on the EU terror blacklist have also won legal victories for similar reasons against being listed, but have so far not had their assets unfrozen or their names removed from the blacklist.