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German court declared null and void revocation of asylum status for four Iranian refugees

JusticeNCRI described court ruling "victory of justice over appeasing mullahs’ dictatorship"

On Thursday, September 22, branch 16 of Cologne’s administrative court completed its consideration of the lawsuit filed by four Iranian political refugees affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI). It rejected the decision by Nuremberg Federal Refugee Office to revoke the asylum status of the four women.

The Cologne court case was the first judicial review of such cases and could be used as precedent in similar cases.

Since August 2003, there were orders to revoke the asylum status of dozens of Iranians in Germany. Those affected were all victims of Iran’s religious dictatorship, most of whom had been granted political refugee status more than a decade ago.

Surprisingly, their asylum status was being cancelled precisely for the same reason they had been granted asylum in the first place, namely affiliation with or support for the People’s Mojahedin. The inclusion of the PMOI in the European Union’s terrorist list was the main excuse by Germany’s Interior Ministry to order the expulsion of the refugees. The Federal refugee office made the same reasoning.

Senior Judge Jacobi, of the 16th Branch of Cologne’s Administrative court underscored that the mere allegation of terrorism was not sufficient and that the federal refugee office, the office to protect the constitution and the criminal police had been unable to provide specific evidence demonstrating that the refugees in question had committed any terrorist activity.

The senior Judge said reports by different German agencies as well as border police about these refugees contained many contradictions and inconsistencies and only add to ambiguity in the case, which the refugee office has failed to answer. Judge Jacobi ruled that even the claim that granting asylum to these refugees was contributing to international terrorism could not be proven.

The women refugees who had filed the lawsuit testified before the court about the dreadful persecution they had endured in Iran at the hands of the mullahs, which was quite moving to the audience. Some of them had spent long years in the regime’s notorious prisons and after being released from prison, still suffered from the effects of torture.

Since 2003, different international human rights organizations and those advocating refugee rights had embarked on many efforts to cancel the wave of canceling political asylum in Germany. The head of the International Human Rights League emphasized that the Mojahedin’s name had been placed in the EU’s terrorist list because of pressures by the Iranian regime and a political label could not be the basis for canceling asylum status.

In his brief to the court, Dr. Reinhardt Marx, the lawyer for Iranian political refugees, wrote that the orders to revoke the asylum status were politically motivated, adding that in the draft agreement between the EU-3 and the Iranian regime, the European side had pledged that if Tehran were to cooperate on the nuclear issue, the EU would continue to consider the PMOI as a terrorist organization.

In this comprehensive legal opinion, Dr. Marx had made it clear that the EU’s decision to brand the PMOI as terrorist could not be the reason to deny those affiliated with the organization of their asylum rights. "In so far as judging the nature of the People’s Mojahedin, one cannot describe this organization as an entity that supports international terrorism," he said.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran congratulated all Iranian refugees and asylum seekers in different countries around the world and welcomed the ruling by Cologne’s administrative court, describing it as another victory of justice over politics.

Recalling that the revoking the asylum status of Iranians because of their affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin was part of the policy of appeasing the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, the NCRI underscored that Wednesday’s decision by the court was an important step in confirming that the inalienable nature of the right to asylum for the victims of the Iranian regime.

The NCRI called on the government of Germany and the Interior Ministry to cancel similar unjust orders and stop pressuring Iranian political refugees.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 23, 2005