UK appeals court blocks bid to keep Iran opposition group on terror list News
UK appeals court blocks bid to keep Iran opposition group on terror list

[JURIST] The Court of Appeal in London Wednesday rejected a government bid to challenge an order [JURIST report] by the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission [official website] to remove an Iranian opposition group from its blacklist of terror organizations. The Court of Appeal ruled there was no evidence that the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) [group website] had been involved with terrorism since 2003 and so no longer satisfied any of the criteria for appearing on the blacklist. PMOI is Iran's main political opposition organization and part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) [group website], an umbrella coalition of Iranian opposition groups. BBC News has more. The Wall Street Journal has additional coverage.

The PMOI was added to Britain's list of proscribed organizations under the Terrorism Act 2000 [text] in March 2001. In December 2006, the European Court of First Instance annulled an asset freeze [JURIST report] on PMOI by the Council of the European Union. The judgment prompted the Council of the European Union to revise [press release, PDF; JURIST report] the procedures used in establishing and maintaining the EU's terror lists.