![\"Court](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2008\/05\/british-court-of-appeal-150.jpg\" "\\"Court")
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States will be under pressure to stop banning an Iranian opposition movement as "terrorist" following a court ruling Wednesday in Britain, a former opposition spokesman said.<\/p>\nWASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States will be under pressure to stop banning an Iranian opposition movement as "terrorist" following a court ruling Wednesday in Britain, a former opposition spokesman said.<\/p>\n
The Court of Appeal ruled there were "no valid grounds" to contend that a British panel made legal errors when it ordered the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) to be removed from a terrorist blacklist.<\/p>\n
Encouraged by the ruling was Alireza Jafarzadeh, who was spokesman for the National Resistance Council of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI's political wing, until the State Department banned both as a "foreign terrorist organization" in 2003.<\/p>\n
Jafarzadeh said the State Department will have to weigh the ruling in London when it conducts its scheduled five-year review of the terrorist designation for the Iranian opposition movement in October 2008.<\/p>\n
"It's clear pressure because here's a credible court that looked at things and said this group — we're talking about the same group, the same activities, everything — this group is not engaged in terrorism," he told AFP.<\/p>\n
The State Department will have to weigh what he said was a 22-page ruling by the Court of Appeal as well as a 144-page ruling by a previous court which acted in favor of the Iranian group, he said.<\/p>\n
"These are going to be submitted by the members of the British parliament, by the group itself, by the members of Congress to the State Department," he said.<\/p>\n
"They will become part of the administrative record and they (State Department) will have to take that into consideration," Jafarzadeh said.<\/p>\n
The heat will also come from US lawmakers.<\/p>\n
"Congress, which was putting pressure before, is going to doubly put pressure on the State Department," Jafarzadeh said.<\/p>\n
He claimed public opinion opposed the designation in a political climate in which Washington accuses Iran of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq and of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n
"This is all pressure on the State Department to change their attitude and their characterization of the main Iran opposition group," he said.<\/p>\n
When asked if the ruling would affect the US review of the movement, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack replied: "I'll have to check with our lawyers on it. We'll see."<\/p>\n
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NCRI Editor’s note:The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, MEK) is a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.<\/p>\n
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States will be under pressure to stop banning an Iranian opposition movement as “terrorist” following a court ruling Wednesday in Britain, a former opposition spokesman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-5197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-resistance","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n