Middle East News
British government loses legal battle to blacklist Iranian group
May 7, 2008, 14:09 GMT
London - The British government Wednesday lost its final right to appeal against an order to remove a proscribed Iranian opposition grouping from a list of banned terrorist organizations.
The Appeal Court rejected a legal bid by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith against a 2007 decision that the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) should be taken off the blacklist.
It refused to give the Home Secretary permission to appeal against the decision by the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission decision that the PMOI was 'not concerned in terrorism' as defined by the Terrorism Act of 2000.
The PMOI, which campaigns for the replacement of the Iranian regime by a secular democracy, is a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
It is on a European Union (EU) list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. The US government has designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.
In seeking to challenge the de-listing decision, Home Office lawyers argued that, although there had been a 'temporary cessation of terrorist acts,' there was reason to fear that terrorist activity had been suspended 'for pragmatic reasons' and might be resumed in the future.
Ali Safavi, of the NCRI's Foreign Affairs Committee, said the end of a seven-year legal battle provided 'vindication of the resistance that has been raised against the regime in Tehran.'
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