On 18 December 2025 – International Migrants Day – the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its landmark judgment in Case C-136/24 P, Hamoudi v Frontex. The Court set aside the order under appeal that had rejected Hamoudi’s action for damages against Frontex, filed by Front-LEX in 2022
The Grand Chamber of the CJEU found that the evidence adduced by Hamoudi forms “a body of consistent evidence, constituting prima facie evidence that he was affected by the alleged incident of 28 and 29 April 2020.”
In referring the case back to the General Court, the CJEU found that the first instance erred in law in rejecting Hamoudi’s requests to order Frontex to submit evidence to which it has exclusive access, namely the OLAF report in its entirety, including the annexes thereto, and the Operational Plan for the rapid border intervention in the Aegean Sea in 2020.
The Court of Justice went beyond upholding Hamoudi’s personal pursuit of justice and, for the first time, established that in collective expulsion cases brought against Frontex, tailor-made rules on the method, standard, and burden of proof must apply. The CJEU also established distinct rules on the taking of evidence and on the duty of the General Court to investigate pushback cases in full compliance with the victims’ fundamental rights to a legal remedy and effective judicial protection
These special rules will, from now on, help ensure greater procedural balance between Frontex and its victims before the Court, will benefit all future victims of Frontex’s activities, and will bring to an end the “de facto immunity” from which Frontex has enjoyed for over 20 years of its activity.
Alaa Hamoodi celebrating with Front-LEX co-Director Iftach Cohen on the 18th December 2025.