Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU cites secret evidence against Iran group

  • The PMOI flag in Brussels (Photo: EUobserver)

The EU claims it has secret evidence that justifies keeping Iran opposition group PMOI on its terrorist register but cannot reveal the content for security reasons, in a situation stoking anger among some MEPs.

"The council [EU states secretariat] is not in a position to give you access to other documents in the file, since the state which provided the documents does not consent to their disclosure," EU officials told PMOI lawyers in a letter on 14 May.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Otherwise the position of the EU in international cooperation in the fight against terrorism would be compromised," the letter goes on.

The letter is the latest in a series of documents exchanged between the EU and PMOI since December, when EU courts annulled an EU decision of 2005 to keep the People's Mujahidin Organisation of Iran on its list.

Officially-named terrorist organisations have their financial assets frozen and are forbidden from fund-raising in Europe.

EU officials say the court ruling does not cover a post-2005 decision to keep PMOI on the register, but all the evidence that Brussels has supplied to the group so far deals with pre-2001 activity.

In the 1990's PMOI carried out cross-border raids and assassination attempts against Iran's Islamist authorities, but the group claims it has become a non-violent, democratic opposition movement since then.

"We want to set up an independent body made up of MEPs, MPs, jurists and council officials that can look at these [secret] documents," a PMOI spokesman said on Wednesday (30 May). "We are confident they have no evidence against us."

The PMOI says its inclusion on the terror register, initiated by the UK five years ago, is a political move to give the west a negotiating chip in its efforts to get Tehran to back down on nuclear technology.

Some EU diplomats and Iranian expats believe the opposition group still has a sinister, fanatical fringe however. At least one of its high-profile western supporters has in the past conceded the PMOI leadership is not a model of liberal democracy.

But the mujahidin case has become a cause célèbre for a cross-party caucus of some 100 MEPs called the Friends of Free Iran, which says the EU's treatment of PMOI is undermining EU values.

"The council has no evidence and the decision must be motivated by purely political or economic concerns," senior Spanish conservative MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca said.

"The council's handling of this case is scandalous," he added. "One of our fundamental values is the rule of law, and this is being violated in order to appease a totalitarian religious regime."

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us