Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly describes the ruling by POAC to de-proscribe the PMOI a slap in the face for HM Government and calls on member states to abide by orders handed down by the judicial institutions
Maryam Rajavi said that the EU Council is defying the judicial and legislative institutions and called on member states not to allow the continuation of such a scandal and lawlessness
NCRI – In its session today, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly adopted the draft report and resolution on the terrorist lists prepared by its Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (CLAHR). Citing the report, the resolution reiterated that “The Council of the European Union and the EU Member States must implement immediately the decisions of competent European and national judicial institutions affecting the status of the listed persons or entities.”
The report criticized the EU Council for not implementing the verdict by Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFIEC) in removing the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) from the EU terror list. The report added, “PMOI’s fundamental rights continue to be violated.” The report also noted that the ruling by the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) ordering the British government to deproscribe the PMOI was “a real slap in the face for HM Government.”
“This decision does not simply identify procedural defects, but gives a ruling on the merits, having reviewed in detail the arguments and evidence presented by both sides,” the report said. The report described “the government’s decision to blacklist the PMOI as ‘perverse’.”
The report added that the case was brought before POAC by 35 British parliamentarians including a former Home Secretary, Lord Waddington, the former Solicitor-General, Lord Archer, and retired judge in the House of Lords, Lord Slynn.
The report said that there were questions in the British press as to why the British Government, which also appeared to be behind the blacklisting of the PMOI at European level, was so antagonistic to this group. “The group which was campaigning for replacement of the Mullahs’ regime by a secular democracy, and had drawn the world’s attention to Iran’s nuclear program in 2002,” the report noted.
Referring to damages inflected on the PMOI as a result of the proscription, including the revocation of the asylum standing of a number of PMOI members and affiliates, the report further added, “Several PMOI members have told me [Dick Marty, CLAHR Chairman] of criminal proceedings in Iran, in which the fact of its being recognize as a ‘terrorist’ organization by the EU has been used as an argument in demanding the death penalty.”
President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, welcomed the resolution and described it an indication of the awakened conscience of European people against such great injustice imposed on the Iranian people and their Resistance over the years in order to appease the religious fascism ruling Iran.
She added that by deciding to maintain the PMOI on its terror list, the EU Council is absolutely isolated and is defying two pillars of the European democracy, namely Europe’s judicial and legislative institutions. Insisting on the same policy, the Council is not only in breach of the law, but also has defied the will of representatives of millions of Europeans who are represented in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Mrs. Rajavi called on the EU member states to remove the PMOI from the terrorist list and not allow such lawlessness and scandal, originally imposed on the Council by the British government, continue.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 23, 2008