Regarding British government’s persistence in defying the British Court’s verdict, the Guardian daily, published in Britain, wrote on Feb. 18: The government is to appeal today against a court ruling, won by 35 MPs and peers, that it should remove the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI), the main Iranian opposition organization, from the list of banned terrorist organizations.
The Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) ruled last November that the government’s decision to keep the PMOI on the list was “perverse”, flawed and must be set aside.
The cross-party parliamentarians backing the delisting of the PMOI – an organization dedicated to overthrowing Iran’s fundamentalist regime by democratic means – include a former law lord, Lord Slynn, two former solicitors general and a former home secretary, Lord Waddington.
The POAC, a body set up by the government to hear appeals from organizations on the UK blacklist, ruled that the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, acted illegally in refusing to take the PMOI off the list drawn up under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The Guardian added: The organization, which campaigns for the replacement of the Iranian regime by a secular democracy, drew the world’s attention to Iran’s nuclear programme in 2002. Jack Straw stated in 2006 that he had put the PMOI on the terror list at the behest of the Iranian government.
The POAC’s ruling followed a decision in December 2006 by the European Court of First Instance that the PMOI should come off the EU terror blacklist. Despite that ruling, it remains on the EU list.
Masoud Zabeti, a solicitor at Mishcon de Reya and chairman of the Committee of Anglo-Iranian Lawyers, said: “The PMOI now has two legal authorities finding in its favor, but the group still remains on both the UK and EU lists.
“If terrorism legislation is to be respected and not brought into question, it is critical that the government honors the procedures that parliament has put into place to deal with such matters.”