The People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) has won a case at the European Court of First Instance against its inclusion on the EU's list of terrorist organisations. Developments in the Council of Ministers since the case was launched make it certain, however, that the organisation will not be removed.
In its ruling, made on 23 October, the Court of First Instance ruled that the Council of Ministers, the forum of EU national governments, had not properly explained why the PMOI should be kept on the black list.
The Council made its decision, in December 2007, despite a ruling a month earlier by a UK court – the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission – that it was “perverse” and “unreasonable” to consider the PMOI a terrorist organisation.
Instead, the Council heeded a request from the UK government to keep the organisation on its list of banned organisation when the list was reviewed in a routine, typically six-monthly reappraisal by EU governments.
Inclusion on the list obliges national governments to freeze an organisation's bank accounts and other financial assets.
Today's ruling does not, however, oblige the Council to remove the PMOI from the list of banned organisations because of a separate decision by the Council, made in July 2008, in which ministers decided to keep the PMOI on the black list at the request of France.
The PMOI has launched a separate court case against that decision.
Today's judgment marks the second time that the PMOI has won a case at the Court of First Instance since it was first blackballed in 2002. On the first occasion, in December 2006, it argued that the Council had broken the law by not supplying it with a statement of reasons explaining why the Council viewed it as a terrorist organisation and by denying it the right to a fair hearing. The Council subsequently changed its procedures, with the result that the PMOI did not need to be removed.
