LONDON, Nov 30, 2007 (AFP) – The British government was told Friday to take a key Iranian opposition movement off its list of proscribed terror organisations after the group won a court appeal.
The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), sitting in central London, ruled that the decision to keep the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) on the blacklist under the 2000 Terrorist Act was "perverse".
The Home Office interior ministry said it would appeal against the judgement.
The appeal to the POAC was brought by 35 British parliamentarians.
"We recognise that a finding of perversity is uncommon," the POAC ruled. "We believe, however, that this commission is in the (perhaps unusual) position of having before it all of the material that is relevant to this decision."
The cross-party parliamentarians included former home secretary Lord David Waddington, former solicitor general Lord Peter Archer, former European Court of Justice judge Lord Gordon Slynn and Lord Peter Fraser, the former lord advocate of Scotland.
Hossein Abedini, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the wider National Council of Resistance of Iran umbrella group, told AFP the judgement would have a "very big impact inside in Iran."
"This is a magnificent victory for justice," he said. "This has been a triumph of human values and resistance.
The PMOI was the armed wing of the France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran but renounced violence in June 2001.
Home Office minister Tony McNulty said: "I am disappointed at this judgment. We don’t accept it and we intend to appeal.