EU sanctions Pro- Palestine Journalist

German Journalist Huseyin Dorgu was sactioned by the EU in May 2025 under the RUSDA regime .
The EU council has demarcated Dorgu as a Russian disinformation actor as part of the Russian associated platform RED .

At a press conference in 2025 , the German Foreign Office endorsed the claim of the EU council that RED had been used by Russia for information manipulation . This they said had been proven “through the close cooperation of almost all German security authorities”.

Dogru meanwhile has denied all the allegations against him , although he was previously a part of Red Fish, a platform financed by Ruptly, a subsidiary of the Russian broadcaster Russia Today (RT) . After the Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Dogru closed Red Fish and started his own independent outlet. He has always maintained that the new outlet has no connection to Russia and is dedicated to making revolutionary and educational content.

Since being placed on the sanctions list, Dogru hasnt been able to taken on any work ( salaried or self employed) . When a daily newspaper tried to employ him, it was termed by the German Federal Bank to be economic assistance. Since May 2025, he also has been subjected to a EU wide entry and exit ban.

in Mid march, the Local Court of Frankfurt am Main rejected Doğru’s application against the freeze applied on his bank account . Authorities then justified the financial repression and have secured the accounts of his wife .

The Customs Authorities , undertook the action. according to an order available to Berliner Zeitung, that the wife's accounts were used to circumvent the sanctions imposed against Doğru.

The letter refers to a “seizure pursuant to Section 3(1) of the Sanctions Enforcement Act (SanktDG).” ed. The authority justified the seizing of the wife's account by stating that the funds in the wife’s accounts must be regarded as funds under the control of her husband.

To justify this, the Central Office refers, among other things, to a car insurance policy. After an existing policy was terminated due to the sanctions, Doğru’s wife purchased a new insurance policy for the shared family car. The registered holder of the vehicle remains Doğru. The fact that she adopted his no-claims bonus rating is interpreted by the authority as an indication of sanctions circumvention.

Another justification provided was that transfer from one of Dorgu's account to his wife's account took place a day after he was sanctioned. According to the custom authority this was also treated as an attempt to circumvent the sanctions .

The German Federal Bank had allowed Dorgu to use 506 euros per month for basic needs.

Doğru told Berliner Zeitungthat the decision to freeze his wife's account does not merely push his family into a legal vacuum, but deliberately forces them into a humanitarian crisis.

Dorgu's family is no longer able to pay rent, feed the children , or cover basic costs like electricity . While the children could theoretically receive assistance, in practice there is a real risk that humanitarian support would be interpreted as circumvention of sanctions.

Doğru says that every time his case garners public attention, the sanctioning measures are intensified. First, he says, the Foreign Office effectively denied him the status of journalist; subsequently, he was publicly discredited as a “disinformation actor.” This was followed by a criminalization of any support for his family; with the most recent decision, the welfare of the children is now being deliberately threatened.

He says that they are using this to break his and his family's spirit. His lawyer is arguing that this state sponsored repression violates the family’s human dignity and is unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law. These sanctions have far reaching consequences as Dorgu is not permitted to receive monetary donations and is also not allowed to accept food assistance. When asked whether a neighbor could already make himself liable to prosecution by bringing Doğru bread, his lawyer Gorski answered:
“Yes, the neighbor would theoretically make himself liable to prosecution.”

BSW (The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance) politician Sevim Dagdelen is now calling for broader political mobilization against the sanctions . In an interview to Berliner Zeitung she said : “Hüseyin Doğru and his family urgently need help. The EU sanctions regime is totalitarian, and the German government must no longer support this inhumane madness. I invite all democrats to become active together here: we need an action platform against the unlawful sanctions in order to defend the rule of law, democracy, and humanity.”