"My government was forced by our highest court to hold its head down in shame and lift the ban. It is virtually certain that the European Court will also order you to lift the ban. The warmongering mullahs of Iran who masterminded the 26 May terrorist attack on Ashraf and also contribute to the routine murder of Iraqi and Coalition troops will not back down from their criminal activities in response to weak signs of appeasement."
His remarks were in reference to a ruling by the UK Court of Appeal on May 7 which ordered the British government to remove the PMOI [MEK] from its list of proscribed organizations. The meeting was organized by three parliamentary committees in Europe and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance was the Keynote speaker. It was chaired by Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quardras, Vice-president of the European Parliament, and dozens of Euro MPs as well as parliamentarians and other dignitaries from Europe attended the meeting.
Speech by Lord Russell-Johnston follows:
I want to begin by condemning in the strongest terms the attack against Ashraf City, home to the PMOI [MEK] in Iraq, by mercenaries acting upon orders by the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards. This terrorist attack was the mullahs’ answer to the damning verdict of the UK Court of Appeal, which ruled on May 7 that the PMOI is not a terrorist group, rather it is a democratic movement seeking to establish a free and democratic Iran.
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips ordered the British government to lift this “perverse”, to use the word used in the judgment, ban on the group, and the Home Secretary has now announced that she would implement this. I believe that she has now proceeded to so. So, that is underway.
The PMOI [MEK] has vast support among the Iranian population, which I believe would have been far greater, had they had the freedom to challenge the status quo and to promote their objectives and aims. I really was ashamed as a British politician and I am sure my colleagues to my left, Struan Stevenson and Lord Clarke would agree that the government of my country not only unlawfully banned the PMOI [MEK] in the UK, and this was directly admitted by Jack Straw when he was Home Secretary in order to appease the mullahs, but went on to influence the European Union to do the same.
I was at the hearing of the European Union court in Luxembourg and it was only the British, only the British government wanted this label against the PMOI [MEK], the others said well if the British think they are terrorists we will go along with them, which they did.
But I now have a strong sense of redemption as our highest court has ruled quite unequivocally that the group is not terrorist. And remember this ruling is not simply on procedural ground, rather it is a definitive judgment which is the culmination of months of deliberation on open-source and also “classified” material relating to the activities and background of the PMOI [MEK].
The court has thus evaluated anything and everything that the British government provided to prove that the ban should remain in effect; however it finally announced that the reality is that “neither in the open material nor the closed material was there any reliable evidence that supported a conclusion that PMOI [MEK] retained an intention to resort to terrorist activities in the future”.
No-one denied that they were engaged in military operations at the beginning, but since 2001 this has certainly not been the case. I think like Mr Quadras that the European Union should now rescind this ban before it is forced to do so by the European Court of First Instance (CFI)
So, my message to the EU today is don’t attempt to further appease the ruthless mullahs by dragging out the legalities which I suppose could go on for about 6 months to maintain the ban on the PMOI [MEK]. My government was forced by our highest court to hold its head down in shame and lift the ban. It is virtually certain that the European Court will also order you to lift the ban. The warmongering mullahs of Iran who masterminded the 26 May terrorist attack on Ashraf and also contribute to the routine murder of Iraqi and Coalition troops will not back down from their criminal activities in response to weak signs of appeasement.
I conclude simply by saying that it is an honour for me to be with Maryam Rajavi, whose courage and determination is an example and an inspiration to us all.
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NCRI Editor’s note:The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, MEK) is a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.