This afternoon, in a press conference at the European Parliament, the attorneys of the Iranian Resistance announced that they have filed a new complaint against the European Union’s Council of Ministers. The new move came following the recent verdict by the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) which described the blacklisting of the PMOI as “perverse.” The decision by the British Home Secretary to maintain the PMOI on the terror list was illegal as it has been in the similar decision by the EU Council of Ministers when they refused to implement the December 12, 2006, ruling of the European Court of Justice calling for removal of the PMOI from the EU terror list.

The renowned European attorneys participating in the press conference were David Vaughan and Jean-Pierre Spitzer announced that the EU Court of Justice has agreed to an expeditious review of the PMOI case.

In the conference, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of  the Iranian Resistance was invited by a number of vice-presidents of the European Parliament said, " On November 30, the secretary of the mullahs’ Supreme Security Council said in London that the UK government had assured him that the government would reject the court verdict. On 12 December, the British Prime Minister carried out his government's pledge to the mullahs’ regime, and said that the decision to proscribe the PMOI would stand. Promising the mullahs’ regime to defy the court goes beyond appeasement." Addressing Gordon Brown, she said, "Is this not a breach of the rule of law?

"Should Europe’s century-long achievements be lost simply because of appeasing the mullahs? Who would benefit from Britain becoming the main supporter of the mullahs' regime, the godfather of terrorism and fundamentalism? Why do you not inform the British people and members of parliament of the real reason behind proscribing the PMOI? Do you not know the consequences of this policy? Do you not know that some day the British government must answer the people of the world for setting the stage for World War Three by the mullahs’ regime? Do not let history judge you as it did Neville Chamberlain.

"The PMOI has again challenged the Council in court for not implementing its verdict and for unlawfully re-listing the PMOI.

"Now, however, following the court ruling in the UK, the EU has no more excuses.

"The basis of the EU listing of the PMOI was the UK Home Secretary's decision, which has now been set aside by POAC.

"The EU should end its defiance of the Court and the unlawful maintaining of the terror tag on the PMOI at once.

"The terror label on the PMOI was meant to preserve the Iranian regime and destroy the Iranian Resistance. This has now failed."

Mr. Struan Stevenson, one of the Vice-Presidents of the EPP-ED group which is the largest European Parliament political group, announced that 34 senior Euro MPs from the group of the European People's Party (EPP-ED), the largest group in the European Parliament, denounced the EU Council of Ministers' illegal decision not to implement the ruling of the European Court of Justice which annulled the terrorist designation of the PMOI, the main Iranian opposition. They called for an end to this designation which was originally done, as they described it, for political reasons.
 
Signatories to the statement include three European Parliament vice-presidents, heads of delegations from 19 countries in the group and six vice-chairs of the group.

The new PMOI complaint against the Council of Europe comes at a time when POAC, a special court in the UK, after 15 months of deliberation and reviewing all relevant documents including confidential and classified documents, investigating the government's claims both in procedure and substance, made its decision. In a ruling on 30 November, a special court in Britain (the Proscribed Organisations Appeals Commissioin) described the PMOI's proscription in that country as "perverse" and called on the British Home Secretary to remove the group from the list of proscribed organizations immediately. The British government's appeal against the court ruling was rejected by the court on 14 December.

On December 17, in a statement, the court called the Home Secretary's request as fallacy and called the Minister's appeal as a motion which has no reasonable chance of success.

Following the press conference, Mrs. Rajavi held a meeting with dozens of Euro MPs from various political groups.  She indicated, "As the terrorist designation of the PMOI in European Union was essentially made on a request by the British government and the only national competent authority was the British Home Secretary, following the decision by the British court, the PMOI's terror designation is not only null and void in Britain but also in the EU.

The attorneys of the Iranian Resistance in a letter to the EU Council of Ministers declared that the Council has no legal basis for the PMOI's listing and called for that body to put an end to the fiasco.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 18, 2007