The UK government plans to reject a European Union decision to lift sanctions on the wife of the late former President Robert Mugabe, suggesting its approach to financially targeting foreign individuals is set to diverge after Brexit, the ‘Sunday Telegraph’ reported.
The UK suspended an order freezing the assets of Grace Mugabe in line with an EU decision last week. It remains bound to follow EU sanctions decisions until the Brexit transition period expires at year end 2020.
The UK government said it disagreed with the decision and will review it once Brexit is complete.
The ‘Sunday Telegraph’ said Britain plans to reimpose sanctions on Ms Mugabe once the transition period is over.
The EU has renewed an arms embargo introduced in 2002 in response to what it called serious human rights violations by Mugabe’s government.
However, Mugabe’s government maintained that the UK was taking a bilateral dispute over the land reform programme and using the EU to fight in its corner.
