NCRI – Over 1,300 British lawyers signed a statement, ‘Iran: A Call for Justice,’ calling upon the Home Secretary to de-proscribe Iran’s main opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (“the PMOI”). This was announced in a symposium held yesterday at the House of Lords’ Moses hall. The text of the statement is as follows:
Lord Slynn, Lord Archer, Bill Bowring, Edward Grieves, Geffrey Bindman, Mark Muller and Stephen Grosz endorsed the call by 1,300 British jurists
NCRI – Over 1,300 British lawyers signed a statement, ‘Iran: A Call for Justice,’ calling upon the Home Secretary to de-proscribe Iran’s main opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (“the PMOI”). This was announced in a symposium held today at the House of Lords’ Moses hall. The text of the statement is as follows:
The theocratic and fundamentalist rulers of Iran brutally oppress the Iranian people, at the same time as openly promoting and sponsoring terrorism across the world. Their mantle of “the world’s most active sponsor of terrorism” and indisputable intention to acquire nuclear weapons makes the mullahs a major threat and challenge for the international community.
Western democracies have increasingly recognised the need to challenge the mullahs and stand up to the imminent threat that they pose. However, this cannot be achieved through either appeasement or external military interference. The answer is to support the millions of longsuffering Iranians and their Resistance movement whose cries for freedom are often silenced on the ends of nooses hanging from cranes in Iran’s squares or under torture in Iran’s many prisons. Regrettably, the Iranian community in Britain and those Britons who wish to promote freedom and democracy in Iran face a major obstacle. In 2001 the British government acceded to the Iranian regime’s demand to proscribe the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), as part of their attempts to improve relations with Tehran.
It is ironic that the then Home Secretary acknowledged that the PMOI does not represent a threat to Western or British interests. In fact, some Western leaders have re-iterated that had it not been for the detailed information provided by the PMOI in August 2002, the world would not have been alerted to the Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme. The PMOI has also exposed accurate and precise information on the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities around the world.
For detailed reasons, which are beyond the realm of this statement, renowned international legal experts have concluded that there is no legal basis for the proscription of the PMOI. That is why The Rt. Hon. Lord Slynn of Hadley and Rt. The Hon. Lord Archer of Sandwell QC, have joined a majority of MPs and a large number of Peers to ask the British government to remove the PMOI from its list of proscribed organisations.
The PMOI is a member organisation of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The NCRI is the Parliament in exile of the Iranian Resistance, which has 540 members and seeks to establish a democratic and secular government to replace the present extremist and fundamentalist regime in Iran.
We the undersigned support this statement and ask the Home Secretary to de-proscribe the PMOI. It is time that our government distanced itself from Iran’s hard-line regime, which represents a direct threat to British interests, and instead sides with the millions of Iranians and their Resistance movement who seek peace, freedom and a secular democracy in Iran.