Maryam Rajavi: POAC judgment is a magnificent victory for justice and the Resistance as well as a message of firmness to religious fascism
NCRI – Nearly seven years after the proscription of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) in the United Kingdom, today, after extensive scrutiny, the Proscribed Organisations Appeals Commission (POAC) issued a judgment which unequivocally declared the terrorist label against the PMOI unlawful, null and void.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described today’s ruling as a magnificent victory for justice, an acknowledgement of the righteousness of the Iranian Resistance and the PMOI, indicative of the awakened conscience of the international community and a message of firmness by the world community to the religious fascism ruling Iran.
Mrs. Rajavi congratulated the PMOI, the combatants of freedom in Ashraf City, Iraq, the Iranian people and all advocates of justice and freedom on this historic victory. She described it as a triumph of human values and achievements, including the recognition of the right to resist for freedom.
The Iranian Resistance’s President-elect said the 35 British Peers and MPs, who challenged the proscription of the PMOI, were the aware conscience of the people of Britain, adding that they had rebelled against a great injustice to the Iranian people and Resistance.
Mrs. Rajavi paid homage to the memory of the late Lord Renton, one of the appellants, lauded and thanked all lawmakers, jurists, lawyers and those who had striven for many years to revoke this proscription.
She commended the honorable judges who voted with their judicial and human conscience and who were not persuaded by the policy of appeasement, pressures and obstructions. Mrs. Rajavi said that the judgment confirms the fact that from its inception, the proscription had been politically motivated only to mollify the tyrants ruling Iran.
She called on the British government to accept and implement the judgment without delay and remove all restrictions emanating from the proscription.
Mrs. Rajavi recalled that nothing in the past decade had prolonged the mullahs’ rule and undermined democratic change in Iran more than the inclusion of the clerical regime’s legitimate opposition in various terrorist lists.
She said, as became evident during the course of the hearing and in the documents the British government provided to the court, the bombing of the PMOI bases during the invasion of Iraq, which caused the martyrdom of dozens of the PMOI members, was carried out at the behest of the Iranian regime and justified by the terrorist label.
After today’s ruling, Mrs. Rajavi, added, the European Union must immediately annul the unlawful terrorist label against the PMOI because the basis for that designation was the proscription of the PMOI by the British Home Office and because the European Court of Justice had annulled it.
The Iranian Resistance’s President-elect recalled that the terror tag against the main Iranian opposition movement and the resultant restrictive measures were the most striking aspect of appeasing the religious dictatorship ruling Iran and the greatest obstacle to democratic change in Iran.
She said, by way of experience, the policy which sought moderates, promoted constructive or critical dialogue, and offered incentives to the religious dictatorship ruling Iran will have no result other than providing it with greater opportunity and motivation to act more aggressively.
The Iranian Resistance’s President-elect added that the time had come to abandon any form of appeasement of, compromise with, and kowtowing to, the mullahs’ regime, which is today justified under the veneer of "seeking peace." She added: Decisiveness is the only way to deal with a regime which is pursuing a nuclear bomb, seeking hegemony over, and filling the power vacuum in, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Somalia, through the export of fundamentalism and terrorism. This warmongering regime has increased the range of its missiles which now reach European countries and has undoubtedly pushed the Middle East region and the rest of the world to the brink of a catastrophe.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized: We have always said and repeat again that the fundamental solution to the Iranian crisis is neither foreign military intervention nor appeasement. The solution is democratic change by the Iranian people and Resistance, making it imperative to remove the barriers placed in the path of this Resistance.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
November 30, 2007
