The Court of Appeal ruled there were "no valid grounds" to contend that a British panel made legal errors when it ordered the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) to be removed from a terrorist blacklist.
Encouraged by the ruling was Alireza Jafarzadeh, who was spokesman for the National Resistance Council of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI's political wing, until the State Department banned both as a "foreign terrorist organization" in 2003.
Jafarzadeh said the State Department will have to weigh the ruling in London when it conducts its scheduled five-year review of the terrorist designation for the Iranian opposition movement in October 2008.
"It's clear pressure because here's a credible court that looked at things and said this group — we're talking about the same group, the same activities, everything — this group is not engaged in terrorism," he told AFP.
The State Department will have to weigh what he said was a 22-page ruling by the Court of Appeal as well as a 144-page ruling by a previous court which acted in favor of the Iranian group, he said.
"These are going to be submitted by the members of the British parliament, by the group itself, by the members of Congress to the State Department," he said.
"They will become part of the administrative record and they (State Department) will have to take that into consideration," Jafarzadeh said.
The heat will also come from US lawmakers.
"Congress, which was putting pressure before, is going to doubly put pressure on the State Department," Jafarzadeh said.
He claimed public opinion opposed the designation in a political climate in which Washington accuses Iran of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq and of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
"This is all pressure on the State Department to change their attitude and their characterization of the main Iran opposition group," he said.
When asked if the ruling would affect the US review of the movement, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack replied: "I'll have to check with our lawyers on it. We'll see."
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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.