![\"Scottish](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2008\/06\/stevenson-2008strasbourg300.jpg\" "\\"Scottish")
Source: Press AssociationEurope's governments have been challenged to follow the UK's lead and take Iran's main opposition group off an EU blacklist of suspected terror organisations.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association
Europe's governments have been challenged to follow the UK's lead and take Iran's main opposition group off an EU blacklist of suspected terror organisations.<\/p>\n
The call came after the Government finally agreed to delete the exiled People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI \/ MEK) after a series of court rulings found no reason for it to be there.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association
Europe's governments have been challenged to follow the UK's lead and take Iran's main opposition group off an EU blacklist of suspected terror organisations.<\/p>\n
The call came after the Government finally agreed to delete the exiled People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI \/ MEK) after a series of court rulings found no reason for it to be there.<\/p>\n
The PMOI was put on the EU list at UK government insistence in 2002, after the then Home Secretary Jack Straw had added the organisation to the UK's own list.<\/p>\n
Years of objections raised by the PMOI resulted in a European Court ruling in December 2006 that PMOI inclusion was "unlawful". The Court found the group was seeking regime change in Teheran by political, non-violent means. But EU governments took no action, claiming the ruling was based on a technicality.<\/p>\n
Then last November the PMOI had a second legal success, winning a case before the UK's independent judicial authority, the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), which described the British Government's blacklisting of the PMOI as unlawful.<\/p>\n
POAC chairman Sir Harry Ognall, a former judge, said the Government's decision to blacklist the PMOI [MEK] was "perverse", because the PMOI [MEK]had not been involved in any military activity since August 2001, that it had disarmed in 2003 and that there was no evidence that the PMOI [MEK]had since sought involvement in any type of military operations.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, published a damning report describing POAC finding as "sensational" and ""a real slap in the face" for the UK Government. Cases such as the PMOI [MEK] controversy were an example of the "disastrous" effects of such blacklists, said the report.<\/p>\n
A third legal victory for the PMOI [MEK]- in the Court of Appeal in May – left the government with no choice but to concede.<\/p>\n
But, Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson told a press conference in Brussels, that still leaves the PMOI [MEK]on the EU list. He said Jack Straw had actually admitted that the PMOI [MEK] was only included on the original UK list in the first place at the request of the Teheran regime – a request he said had been repeated only last week to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana during a visit to Teheran.<\/p>\n
"I say to the Council (of EU governments), no more delay, no more procrastination, no more excuses – listen to the rule of law and observe the decision of the Houses of Parliament and Lords (the UK government) and take the PMOI of this list now." <\/p>\n
Photo: Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source: Press AssociationEurope’s governments have been challenged to follow the UK’s lead and take Iran’s main opposition group off an EU blacklist of suspected terror organisations. The call came after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-5321","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