December 05, 2008

The Washington Post, December 4 (excerpts) – A European Union court on Thursday annulled a new move by the bloc to freeze the assets of an exiled Iranian opposition group in the latest in a string of legal setbacks to its blacklist of suspected terrorist groups.
The European Court of First Instance already threw out last month a 2007 move to freeze the assets of People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), the group which exposed Iran’s covert nuclear programme in 2002.
A new ruling from the court said that decision also breached the PMOI’s right of self-defense because it did not inform the group of new information on it obtained by France.
“Consequently the court annuls the funds-freezing decision,” the statement said, adding that no such decision should be based on information that a country was not ready to make available to the court.
An EU spokesman said the EU Council — the body responsible for decisions by the 27 member states about the blacklist — would study the ruling and decide whether to appeal or not.