Reported by The Guardian the UK government is to appeal against a court ruling, won by 35 MPs and peers, that it should remove Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from the list of banned terrorist organizations. The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC) ruled last November that the government’s decision to keep MKO on the list was "perverse", flawed and must be set aside.
According to the report, three senior judges headed by the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, will hear the home secretary’s appeal. The government argues that the proscribed group has only temporarily ceased terrorism for "pragmatic reasons". A Home Office spokesman said: "The PMOI was engaged in terrorism until 2001, and until 2003 kept an extensive arsenal at its base in Ashraf, Iraq. It is now seeking to establish itself as a non-violent democratic movement.
"However, our assessment is that the PMOI may not have genuinely renounced terrorism and that there may have been only a temporary cessation of terrorist acts for pragmatic reasons. We believe there is a risk of the PMOI returning to terrorism in the future that warrants its continuing proscription in this country."
Mojahedin.ws -February 18 2008
