NCRI – In four states of Nordrhein Westfalen, Bayern, Hamburg, and Brandenburg, Germany’s internal security agency known as Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) removed People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR) from the list of foreign extremist organizations. Previously, the BfV and the State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution in 12 German states had removed PMOI and NCR from their lists. As such, PMOI and NCR –that had been listed since the 1990’s as a result of Iranian regime’s request and for appeasing Tehran’s mullahs– are now delisted in all 16 German states.
The annual report of the BfV and all of its counterpart state offices are warning against mullahs’ regime’s espionage activities against Iranian dissidents and against Germany’s political, economic, and military entities. These reports describe the Iranian regime and its so-called Islamic centers in Hamburg, Munich and Nordrhein Westfalen, as some of the main factors for spreading of Islamic fundamentalism in Germany and name Islamic fundamentalism as the main security threat in Germany. These reports also mention front companies and dealers who have engaged in smuggling banned equipment for mullahs’ regime’s nuclear facilities, resulting in their prosecution by law and receiving heavy punishments.
Delisting PMOI from BfV’s list of extremist organizations is a defeat for the clerical regime, its front associations and lobby in Germany which were engaged in a smear campaign against the Iranian Resistance in Germany by spending enormous amounts of money for many years. This is following a widespread political and legal battle by the Iranian Resistance and efforts of many Federal parliamentarians in Germany, as well as the legal opinion of Professor Winfried Hassemer, former vice-president of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court.
The mullahs’ regime has implemented all diplomatic and commercial pressure levers and its political lobby, as well as active exchange of intelligence in order to influence various German government bodies against PMOI and NCR.
At a press conference in Tehran in May 2000, Ali Yunessi, Iranian regime’s infamous Minister of Intelligence said that they had continuous cooperation with German security agencies and that they had given “extensive intelligence” about the PMOI to those German agencies.
As another example, in 2010, the Focus weekly news magazine revealed that an agent of Iran’s intelligence service had infiltrated Germany’s BfV for 8 years and during those years Iran was leaking targeted misinformation against PMOI to the BfV.
Prof. Winfried Hassemer, former vice-president of the Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, which is the highest legal entity in the country, in a 122-page legal opinion, reviewed the BfV reports that were issued over many years. That opinion played a major role in this political-legal campaign. Prof. Hassemer, who for many years conducted judicial reviews as the second highest legal authority in Germany, denounced the influence of foreign policy interests and Germany-Iran relations on security assessments about PMOI and the Iranian resistance. That legal opinion determined that 9 basic rights described in the German Constitution were violated in the process of BfV’s reports about PMOI or that those reports created the possibility of violation of those rights. According to Prof. Hassemer’s legal opinion, the party that received damages could file a legal suit in order to have the reports corrected. This legal opinion concluded that the actions of the BfV vis-à-vis PMOI and NCR were not in accordance to the German legal standards as Constitution determined.
