Iran group can end misery

LONDON, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Feb. 11 marked the 29th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yet, as nations across the world have made huge technological and scientific advancements over the past three decades, Tehran's rulers have taken the people of ancient Persia back to the closest thing to the Middle Ages.

Once the cradle of civilization, Iran under the mullahs' rule is today a state of repression and terror. In January, authorities announced they had amputated the arms and legs of five prisoners for taking part in activities against the state. More than 30 people were executed and two sisters sentenced to stoning during the same period. Despite the atmosphere of heightened repression, Iranian youths are ready for change. Millions like them demand the freedoms offered by Iran's parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

It would come as a surprise then that rather than aiding those who seek to end the ayatollahs' near-three-decade long reign of terror, torture and executions, Britain and the European Union are lending support to Iran's radical clerics in cracking down on the main force within the NCRI.

In 2001, at Tehran's behest, the United Kingdom proscribed the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. A year later, the EU added the PMOI (also known as Mujahedin e Khalq) to its own terrorist list, making use of a provision in its anti-terrorism laws that states that the list must be based on a prior decision taken by a "competent authority" in a member state, in this case Britain's Home Office, run then by Jack Straw. The EU's Spanish presidency conceded at the time that the terror tag on Iran's only effective opposition movement was intended as a "goodwill gesture" to those in power in Tehran.

Given the fact that more than 120,000 members of the PMOI have been executed by the regime and the group's underlying commitment to respect for human rights and civil liberties, the PMOI have a formidable backing in EU states' parliaments and the U.S. Congress.

In December 2006, the European Court of First Instance ruled that PMOI was "unlawfully" added to the EU's terrorist list. Then in June 2007, the EU under coercion from the United Kingdom chose to violate the court ruling and maintain the PMOI in its list. It told the group's lawyers at the time, "Having regard to the MEK's commission of and participation in acts of terrorism, the U.K. secretary of state took a decision on 29 March 2001 to proscribe Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK or MKO) as an organization concerned in terrorism under the UK Terrorism Act 2000. ... A decision in respect of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEI or MKO) has thus been taken by a competent authority within the meaning of Article 1(4) of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP."

This argument -- as shady as it is -- no longer applies. On Nov. 30, 2007, following an appeal by 35 cross-party members of Parliament and peers, the United Kingdom's Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission ruled that the government's continued ban on the PMOI is "flawed" and "perverse." POAC, which was set up by Parliament specifically to decide on cases of banned groups disputing their status, ordered the home secretary to remove the PMOI from the proscribed list. In December, the government lost in its attempt to seek leave to appeal the POAC judgment.

Several days after POAC's damning judgment, the EU put the PMOI in its updated terrorist list again on the basis of a now-discredited and void listing of the group by the government. Clearly, the actions of Britain and Brussels make a mockery of the rule of law. The referee must now give both the EU and United Kingdom a red card for breaking the law to appease a barbaric regime that is responsible for the murder of British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and seeks to develop a nuclear arsenal to hold the international community to ransom.

As NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi has said, Gordon Brown and his EU allies must now lift the "unlawful" ban on the main Iranian opposition force and side with the Iranian people in their brave efforts to bring about democratic change in Iran.

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(Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, a member of the House of Lords from Gordon Brown's ruling Labor Party, is chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.)

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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)