FOFI Warns against the EU Council’s defiance of court ruling on Iranian Mojahedin

Friends of Free Iran inter-parliamentary group in a statement today warned against maintaining the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) on the terror list by the Council of Ministers of Environment, describing it as a legal catastrophe and a political scandal.

The Text of the statement follows:

FOFI warns against maintaining the PMOI on the terror list by the Council of Ministers of Environment, describing it as a legal catastrophe and a political scandal
 
Friends of a Free Iran expresses its deep concern over the Council of the European Union’s defiance of the ruling of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the Council’s intention to maintain the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) on the EU terror list. This is apparently to be decided by COERPER 2 and endorsed by the Council of EU Ministers of Environment this week.
 
Writing on behalf of over 1,000 European lawmakers to the Presidency of the European Union, FOFI called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to prevent the unlawful listing of the PMOI on the terrorist list as this would represent a political and legal scandal for the European Union.
 
The designation of a legitimate resistance movement, 120,000 of whose members and supporters have been executed by the Iranian regime, is a blatant injustice and would set a terrible precedent in Europe.
 
By sending a one-page Statement of Reasons to the PMOI on 30 January 2007, the Council announced that it intended to maintain the PMOI on the terrorist list and gave the organisation one month to reply. While renowned jurists insisted that maintaining the PMOI on the list violated the court ruling, the Council’s claim that it intended to examine the PMOI’s responses was only designed to rubber stamp a decision already made.
 
In its letter to the PMOI on 14 May 2007, the Council stated: “As far as the PMOI is concerned, the foreign relation working party (RELEX) discussed on 18 December 2006 and 18 January 2007 the steps necessary in order to maintain that group on the list.”
 
This means that the Council did not intend to discover the facts, or to comply with the court ruling, but simply wanted to maintain the PMOI on the list and justify its decision to do so. In his letter of 19 March to the British MP Roger Gale, Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote: “Following the CFI decision on the MeK (PMOI) case in December, the EU has reviewed the listing, using improved procedures, and on 30 January reaffirmed its decision to include the MeK on the list of terrorist organizations.”
 
In a reply dated 5 May to a letter from EP Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Dr. Christoph Hosgen, Angela Merkel’s political and security advisor wrote, “The council of the European Union reached a consensus in February 2007 that the reasons for including the MKO (PMOI) on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations and persons are valid.”
 
How can the Council reach a consensus before receiving nearly 2,000 pages of documents provided by the PMOI as part of its reply unless the intention was simply to justify a pre-determined decision?
 
FOFI strongly believes that maintaining the PMOI on the terrorist list is an unjustified political concession to the regime ruling Iran. This is happening while the Iranian regime is violating the Security Council resolutions in its quest to acquire a nuclear bomb, killing innocent Iraqis, creating havoc in Lebanon, Yemen and Somali and undermining peace in the Middle East.
 
FOFI warns that the continuation of an appeasement policy would embolden the Tehran regime to repeat the Gaza scenario in other Arab and Muslim countries. By placing the main Iranian opposition on the terror list and imposing severe restrictions on the main actor for change in Iran, the EU is bearing a major responsibility in creating such a catastrophic situation.
 
The continuing injustice against the PMOI remains a dark stain on the history of Europe for which the EU’s current leaders would be blamed in the future.
 
In its letter, FOFI urged Chancellor Merkel not to allow such a tragic violation of law and a legal and political scandal occur under her presidency, and to defer any decision on the PMOI until a full examination of the documents submitted by both parties is carried out by an impartial committee, which would include members of the European Parliament.