The court’s press release underscored that the verdict was issued only one day after the hearing session, the quickest process of its kind
Full text of court's press release click here
NCRI – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described today’s ruling of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities as the victory of justice. She said that only one day after the hearing, the Court put an end to the EU Council of Ministers’ unlawful decision to maintain the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran on its terrorist list.
Based on the verdict, she noted that the PMOI is no longer on the EU’s terrorist list and it cannot be placed back on the list. The Council is now obliged to make an official announcement to acknowledge it. The EU must extend its apologies to the PMOI and the people of Iran. The EU must compensate for the heavy damage inflicted on the Iranian people and their Resistance.
Mrs. Rajavi reiterated that the ruling was a heavy blow to the government of France for its shameful use of an empty file. In order to please the religious fascism ruling Iran, France undermined all judicial and ethical principles and called for keeping the Mojahedin on the list, she stressed.
Yesterday the court demonstrated that neither the EU Council nor the French government have any documents against the Mojahedin. Rather, they were imposing the will of a medieval dictatorship ruling Iran by ignoring the most basic judicial procedures. The representatives of the EU Council of Ministers and the French government were not able to come up with the minimum defense of their illegal actions when they were flooded by various questions from the judges. They only replied with their silence.
After today’s verdict, Mrs. Rajavi warned that if the Council persisted on doing a service to the mullahs by refusing to implement the ruling of the court then they would lose all their credibility. “I call on the European leaders not to allow the interest groups to hold hostage the Europe’s credibility by putting pressure on the Council not to abide by the rule of law and the court ruling.”
She noted that yesterday’s hearing and today’s verdict have far more implications than removing a terror label. The label itself bears no credibility. The heart of the argument is democracy and freedom of the Iranian people.
On the opposite side there are those who are willing to stand against the desires of the Iranian people. They entered shameful deals with the mullahs for short term economic interests not having an in-depth understanding of the regime’s nature.
This has given a free hand to the ruling fundamentalists to brutally suppress the Iranian people. It also enabled the mullahs to export terrorism to Iraq and other Middle-Eastern countries and to come closer to obtaining nuclear weapons as well as adding to their missile’s range for reaching Europe.
By placing the Mojahedin on the blacklist they closed the door for a democratic change in Iran and deprived the world of the most important means for the change.
It is high time that the West correct its biggest mistake toward the Iranian issue by removing all restrictions from the Resistance.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 4, 2008