The EU to State the reasons for MKO's proscription - TIME ONLINE

Mojahedin.WS, December 18, 2006

Reported by Time Online on December 14 in an article entitled "Iran's Armed Opposition Wins a Battle — In Court", the author controverts the possibility that the EU might remove the MKO from its terrorist list. It seems, as it is wise, that nobody risks unleashing the hound one has effortfully leashed based on sound reasons. The EU and the US had been well aware of the MKO's terrorist nature when they blacklisted it as a terrorist group. The ruling of the European court does not contradict the group's being listed as a terror organization but why the group was not informed of the reasons behind the decision. 

Despite of MKO's jubilant chants of victory and its reliance on a number of advocates among the European Parliamentarians, who view the group as a potential force against Iran, the "European Union officials tell TIME that Madame Rajavi is celebrating prematurely, because they have no intention of taking the MEK off the terror list".

The EU reviews the list every six months. To confirm the EU's stance, Jesus Carmona, spokesman for the European Union's anti-terrorism authority, enunciates that "The next list will come out in early 2007, and we're going to comply with the court and publicly state the reasons for any group or individual on it. But it wasn't an arbitrary decision to put this group on that list."

TIME Magazine, JAMES GRAFF/Dec. 14, 2006/Paris

"…So, was the European court ruling a sign that the E.U. is about to unleash the MEK on the mullahs? Hardly.

"The ruling of the Court of the First Instance, the second-highest court overseeing the laws of the European Union, was largely procedural. It found that when the E.U. put the MEK on its list of terrorist organizations in 2002, it should have informed the organization about the basis for that action. The court acknowledged that the European Union is not obliged to inform a possible terrorist organization before its assets are frozen — "It must be able to benefit from a surprise effect," stated the court — but that the group should be granted access to the reasons for the decision.

"…European Union officials tell TIME that Madame Rajavi is celebrating prematurely, because they have no intention of taking the MEK off the terror list, despite the growing number of European Parliamentarians who view the group as a force that could somehow supplant the mullahs' regime. "The next list will come out in early 2007, and we're going to comply with the court and publicly state the reasons for any group or individual on it," says Jesus Carmona, spokesman for the European Union's anti-terrorism authority. "But it wasn't an arbitrary decision to put this group on that list."

"Nor is there any evidence that the U.S. is in any rush to clarify its ambiguous stance on the shadowy group. Sure, Ahmadinejad is a worrying threat to the international community. But the debacle of U.S. policy in Iraq and elsewhere in the region may have put paid to the notion that the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
 

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