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Federal court orders reconsideration of Iran opposition group's terrorist designation

By Hillary Stemple

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] Monday ordered [opinion, PDF] the US State Department (DOS) [official website] to reconsider the designation of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) [political website] as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) [text]. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) [text] allows the Secretary of State to designate groups as FTOs, which gives the US government the power to freeze the assets of the organization, bar the organization's members from entering the US and subject people accused of providing material support to the organization to criminal prosecution. Under an amended version of AEDPA, FTOs are able to petition to have the status revoked, if there has been a material change in the actions of the organization. The PMOI, also known as the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MEK), was first designated as an FTO in 1997, but petitioned for a review of this status in 2008. PMOI claimed they were no longer involved in a military campaign against Iran, that they voluntarily handed over weapons to US troops in Iraq, and that they had voluntarily cooperated and shared intelligence information with the US. The petition was denied by former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice [BBC profile], citing classified information. The court ruled that the failure of the DOS to provide PMOI the opportunity to refute the unclassified information that was determinative to their decision was a violation of due process protections required by AEDPA. The court recognized the interests in foreign policy and national security asserted by the DOS, but ordered the DOS to provide the group with the opportunity to review and refute unclassified information which led to their decision. The court allowed the FTO designation to remain in place pending the review.

PMOI is Iran's main political opposition organization and part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) [group website], an umbrella coalition of Iranian opposition groups. The EU removed PMOI from their list of terrorist organizations [AFP report] in January 2009. Both Houses of the UK Parliament approved PMOI's removal [JURIST report] from their country's list of prohibited organizations in 2008. The votes confirmed a court ruling [JURIST report] that there was no evidence that the PMOI had been involved with terrorism since 2003 and that the group no longer satisfied the criteria for appearing on the proscribed group list [Home Office materials]. In December 2006, the European Court of First Instance annulled an asset freeze [JURIST report] on PMOI by the Council of the European Union. The judgment prompted the Council of the European Union to revise [press release, PDF; JURIST report] the procedures used in establishing and maintaining the EU's terror lists.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 20, 2010 (boomark / email).