Now that you have decided that the Mojahedin-e Khalq”random mortar launchers”are not a terrorist group, please would the European Council put me and my family on their terrorism list so that the system will be completed.
Yours sincerely,
Abdul Nabi Beit Salem
Ahvaz, Iran
Edalat Association (families of victims of Mojahedin Khalq Terrorism), March 11 2009
Europe vs. MKO: West controversial act in war on terror
Foreign Ministers of EU voted for the removal of MKO from terror list. An act that shows west’s contradictory behavior in its war on terror. 
Protection of human rights is going to the opposite way in the West, although MKO is still designated as a terrorist organization by many countries.
EU couldn’t declare a group’s being or not being terrorist by itself, rather a just court should announce such a ruling and determine terrorist designation. In fact, terrorism is an international crime that according to international laws and an international fair court is the only competent tribune for terrorism designation.
It seems that EU didn’t obey Vienna Convention (which is binding for all individuals) and removed the group from terror list in a political act.
MKO has committed numerous crimes worldwide especially in Iran and Iraq and its terrorist designation is perfectly documented based in true facts.
Terrorism evidences in a legal view:
In various concepts of human science and specially politics the determination of a standard is neither possible nor acceptable. Therefore, lack of a standard for terrorism definition, makes it mixed with political or sometimes beneficial interests.
According to the International law commission the below-mentioned issues are considered as terrorist acts:
(i) Any act causing death or grievous bodily harm or loss of liberty to a Head of State, persons exercising the prerogatives of the Head of State, their hereditary or designated successors, the spouse of such persons, or persons charged with public functions or holding public positions when the act is directed against them in their public capacity (A large number of Iranian politic men were assassinated by MKO after the Islamic Revolution)
(ii) Acts calculated to destroy or damage public property or property devoted to a public purpose (So many governmental or non-governmental buildings, buses, cars have been bombed by MKO or damaged in MKO mortar attacks)
(iii) Any act likely to imperil human lives through the creation of a public danger, in particular the seizure of aircraft, the taking of hostages and any form of violence directed against persons who enjoy international protection or diplomatic immunity ( MKO’s violent acts include a large range of attacks, such as their simultaneous attacks to 13 Iranian Embassies all over the world in 1992)
(iv) The manufacture, obtaining, possession or supplying of arms, ammunition, explosives or harmful substances with a view to the commission of a terrorist act.( MKO has formally declared its armed struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic)
A lot of international conventions, acts, treaties and agreements on the terrorism phenomenon, have been signed. There are numerous international bodies involving in fighting terrorism, having various plans to control such inhumane, immoral acts.
Indeed, the most important motive to cause terrorism is political but the efforts to control terrorism have just had legal aspects.
One can claim that the international laws in this case are only a cover for the political interests of the states to whether support or condemn a terrorist incident.
It should be noted that the war on terror is caught between various paradoxes which gives the superpowers and their agents an opportunity to abuse the current atmosphere.
Evaluation
The EU’s move is violation of the international laws and implies their political benefits.
The EU’s position regarding MKO’s case will bring about heavy damages. It might become a new approach to deal with other terrorist groups.
Values like human rights and freedom are nowadays a tool for implementing political pressure by those who claim to call for freedom.
However, the West does take no position against Israelis who massacre civilians in Gaza, the EU removes MKO from the black list. The file of various crimes committed by MKO against Iranians is achieved on the so-called human rights’ table of the West.
The dual standards of the West considering terrorism and human rights is viewed as funny by the international community.
War on Terror will never be successful unless the superpowers put away their ambitions or reckless political interests. Terrorist acts of evil MKO group might continue in the safe haven of the West.
Islam Abad-Ahmad Farahani – Translated by Nejat Society
IRNA, Moscow- A Russian scholar said the European Union (EU) manipulated such issues as terrorism and human rights for its own political purposes.
Talking to IRNA here on Saturday, Ludmila Kulagina, as a top researcher in the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, criticized the recent EU move in removing the terrorist Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) form its terrorism list.
She said the move was a clear example of the double-standard policy adopted by the west on the issue of terrorism and frankly undermined the EU claim of fighting terrorism.
She believed the west treated such issues as terrorism and human rights in a biased and fanatical manner based on the double-standard policies inspired by its political interests.
Saying that certain western countries labeled organizations as terrorists according to their own whims and wishes, she said such a policy was clearly manifested in their behavior towards Hamas which was rejected by the west as a terrorist movement despite the fact that it assumed power in Palestine following a democratic election.
Referring to countless terrorist operations carried out by the terrorist MKO in both Iran and Iraq during the past three decades that claimed numerous lives, she stressed the EU’s delisting of the terrorist MKO lacked any legal or rational justifications.
Kulagina noted that the EU’s move, who delisted the terrorist organization instead of punishing it for the crimes it has committed, served the merely political purpose of fueling the tension between Iran and the US and some European countries by strengthening Iran’s opponents.
She said such a decision by the EU would negatively affect Iran-Europe ties.
Reza Sadeghi: EU should take the next step by helping the victims of Rajavi cult in Camp Ashraf
Interview with the latest arrival from Camp Ashraf
Paris, January 30, 2009
EU lifts ban on MKO terrorists(A day after the arrest of their suicide bomber in Iraq)
The European Union has reportedly decided to remove the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its terror blacklist.
“The deal has been done. [MKO] will be delisted,”an EU diplomat said on conditions of anonymity on Thursday.
He, however, asserted that the consensus must win final approval from EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday in order to become fully operational.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled some twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism inside the country.
The terrorist group is especially notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988).
The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report condemns the MKO for running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations. According to report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world to acknowledge the dissidents as those of a legitimate opposition group.
The group has a 40-year history of involvement in terrorist activities. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s and criticized the founder of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages of the embassy takeover should have been executed.
The United States and Canada have refused to drop the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations.
HONOROBLE MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN- PARIAMENT AND EUROPEAN- COUNCIL,
We are the victims of PMOI( People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran) who 
could rescue ourselves from the blood- smeared clutches of RAJAVI’s cult after almost two decades , and finally after putting lots of hurdles and obstacles behind , despite of PMOI’s operatives and leaders ‘ unwillingness of our departure from IRAQ ,we arrived to European countries safe and sound.
We have spent more than twenty years of our lives in this inhuman cult and we have experienced lots of pain psychologically and physically as a result of inhuman treatment and savage attitude of the PMOI’s operatives during those breath taking years. We are live witnesses of cruelty and brutality of this cult upon the people of IRAQ during SADDAM HOSSEIN’s dictatorship.
This cult which tries its best to hide its horrendous and horrific past , wants to take advantage of freedom and democracy in European and Nordic countries to propagandize its cultish thoughts and beliefs among people. Their nature is compatible and well matched with violence and peaceful solution is not their favorite ,so they can be very dangerous for European people and the PMOI’s dissidents who are currently living in European countries and they are very vulnerable and defenseless.
We as victims of this notorious cult ,are very surprised and insulted that the leader of this brutal cult ( MRS.MARYAM RAJAVI) whose hands are smeared with blood is allowed to participate in your parliament and even make speech in front of distinguished members of parliament which is going to happen in 26th of January ,2009 in Brussels . The conference will be implemented by the committee of sanitation and social affaires .
How do you allow such a person( MRS. MARYAM RAJAVI) whose hands are smeared with blood of Iraqi people and the dissidents of ASHRAF garrison to make speech for your honorable members? In our point of view , the presence of MRS. MARYAM RAJAVI in EUROPEAN parliament and making speech is the biggest insult to your prominent and distinguished members , the mournful people of IRAQ , and to the victims of this cult .
We are all long time members of this cult with more than twenty years record of service and we declare officially that we are completely ready to share our horrifying experiences and point of views which we obtained in this cult, with the honorable members of European parliament , European council and others whenever and wherever is possible .
At the end we urge you not to allow the leader of this inhuman cult to participate and make speech in your honorable and distinguished parliament . Please do not forget that the leader of this cult wants to take advantage of your global reputation to hide and conceal the crimes that her cult has done against the KORDS of IRAQ and against her political and ideological dissidents in ASHRAF garrison.
SIGNATORIES
MR.NAZARI/ MANSOUR ( WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR . SARAFPOUR/HAMED(WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR.PIRANSAR/HASSAN (WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR. SIAHMANSOURI/HAMID (WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR. BAZIARPOUR / MOHAMMAD ( WITH 20 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR. RAZAGHI/ MOHAMMAD ( WITH 17 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
MR. NADERI / NADER (WITH 17 YEARS RECORD OF SERVICE)
Pers et Avenir association, Paris, January 22, 2009
Open Letter to Mr. Mirek Topolánek, President of the Council of Europe
Honorable President of the European Council, Mr. Mirek Topolánek,
We have the honor to inform you that we, the separated members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) who have taken shelter in the European states, have been informed by authentic sources that the European Council will consider and verify the terrorist groups’ list very soon. As far as we know, the European Council intends to remove the name of the PMOI from the present terrorist list as indexed. Whereas, we, the former members of this organization are the direct and ipso facto victims of this cult’s terrorist and cultic activities, so that we have witnessed the crimes of this cult. Therefore, we feel responsibility and it is our human duty to express our humane views in the framework of the democratic regulations of the European Council regarding accurate and effective decision-making with the intention of serving and helping the states of Europe and human beings, in particular, the victims and the caged captives of the Ashraf Garrison in Iraq.
1- We, the emancipated victims of the Mojahedin cult will be pleased and appreciative as we admire Europe’s honest representatives, if the elimination of this sect from the terrorist groups’ list will result in the emancipation and freedom of the incarcerated victims of this cult in the Ashraf Garrison in Iraq. As a result, the locked gate of Ashraf Garrison can be breached and opened for the locked up victims so that the innocent victims can have the right and opportunity to leave Ashraf Garrison and settle down in the European states. Undoubtedly, such an effective step via the European Council can accelerate the rising trend of the eradication of this cult. Subsequently, we, the separated members and the public opinion of the West will welcome the European Council’s decision.
2- We, the liberated victims of this cult declare our opposition versus any political deal and action, which means that this cult shouldn’t be used as a political tool by Europe in the regional balance of power. As a result of such policy, the leaders and key officials of this cult are allowed to have opportunities and facilities such as free trips with the intention of achieving their cultic and terrorist purposes in European countries. Without any doubt, we, the emancipated victims of this cult are the prime victims of such political deals whose lives are at the direct and short range targets of terrorists via this cult in the European states. Meanwhile, the Mojahedin’s cult leadership takes advantage of such conditions to prolong the present impasse situation in Ashraf Garrison in Iraq to confine over three thousand innocent victims in custody in Ashraf Garrison.
Yours truly
The accessible signatories:
NADER NADERI
MOHAMMAD RAZAGHI
MOHAMMAD BAZIARPOUR
HAMMED SARRAFPOUR
MANSOOR NAZARI
HASSAN PIRANSAR
HAMID SIAH MANSOURI
Pers et Avenir association, Paris, January 14, 2009
TEHRAN – A court that ruled that the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), was wrongly included on list of terrorist organizations refuses to say when it should be taken off it.
The European Court of First Instance has refused to clarify whether member states must immediately apply a judgment requiring an Iranian opposition group to be removed from the EU’s terrorist blacklist.
In a written statement, issued on 17 December, the court rejected a request for clarification by EU member states, represented by the Council of Ministers, saying the request is”manifestly inadmissible”because it”relates to a matter not decided by the main judgment”.
In its judgment, made on 4 December, the court ruled that the Council of Ministers had infringed the legal rights of the MKO when it updated the blacklist in July without explaining its inclusion. It also said the Council failed to provide sufficient evidence to the court that the MKO’s status as a terrorist organization was justified.
The judgment legally annulled the MKO’s inclusion on the list. Member states have until 14 February to lodge an appeal.
The Council of Ministers subsequently requested the court to clarify if the judgment had to be applied immediately, or if the MKO could be left on while member states consider whether to appeal, known legally as”a judgment with suspensive effect”. The Council also sought clarification on whether the suspension would continue if an appeal was launched.
The Council of Ministers argues that the EU courts’ statute says a judgment should have a suspensive effect when it annuls an EU regulation. The Council also argues that a previous ruling, also at the Court of First Instance, said that the blacklist updates are legally similar to regulations.
Since 4 December, member states have been working on the assumption that the judgment is in suspension and MKO’s name features on the blacklist after it was updated on 16 December. The update was limited to adding organizations believed to be linked to Spanish terrorist group ETA. The court’s decision not to provide a clarification means the stand off between the MKO and member states is likely to continue.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
The MKO is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visits Brussels and despite the ban enjoys full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The UK initiative, however, has prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
In its judgment made on 4 December, the European Court of First Instance ruled that the Council of Ministers had infringed the legal rights of the MKO when it updated the blacklist on 15 July 2008 without explaining its inclusion. The second clause of the Council Decision (2008/583/EC), however, explicitly states that it has provided for the groups and entities statements of reasons for their proscription:
2. The Council has provided all the persons, groups and entities for which it was practically possible with statements of reasons explaining why they were listed in Decision 2007/868/EC. Concerning one group and three persons the amended statements of reasons has been provided to them, if possible, in April 2008.
Following the MKO’s application to contest the Council’s decision, the court ruled that it “Annuls Council Decision 2008/583/EC of 15 July 2008 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Decision 2007/868/EC, in so far as it concerns the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran”. Of the restrictive measures was freezing the assets and funds of the listed groups.
The court in its 47 paragraph judgment says that “the Court finds that the continued freezing of the applicant’s funds by the contested decision was the result of a procedure during which the applicant’s rights of the defence were not respected” and consequently annuls the decision concerning MKO’s assets-freezing. Then, what it has to do with the removal of the organization from the terrorist list?
Since the Council applied for interpretation of the Court judgment of the Court of First Instance on 4 December 2008, the court issued a latest order in which the application for interpretation was dismissed as inadmissible. commenting on the court order released on 17 December 2008, MKO states that “the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFI), in its fourth ruling over the past two years, rejected a request by the EU Council and France to delay implementation of the December 4 court ruling on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI ) until the deadline to submit an appeal against the ruling has ended. It described their demand as ’clearly unacceptable’ and ordered the Council to pay all legal costs incurred by the PMOI. Thus, the Court put an end to unlawful delays and excuses by the Council, leaving it with no alternative but to comply with the court ruling and acknowledge that the PMOI is no longer on the terrorist list”.
But in none of these orders the court has ruled and acknowledged that MKO “is no longer on the terrorist list”. Still, since 4 December, member states have been working on the assumption that the judgment is in suspension and MKO’s name remains on the blacklist after it was updated on 16 December. The court’s decision not to provide further clarification on the nature of its decision means that the row between the MKO and the EU member states is likely to continue.
Tobias Pflüger: PMOI Members are no ‘freedom fighters’
Letter to the Members of European Parliament concerning the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI)
Dear colleagues,
The United Kingdom recently decided to remove the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI)* from the list of banned terrorist groups following a court ruling.
We warn against the misunderstanding that the court’s order to remove the PMOI from the terrorist list accords the PMOI democratic legitimacy and credentials as political opposition to the ruling Iranian regime. Moreover, their claim to be the only legitimate opposition rather proves their own totalitarian approach.
The PMOI is an organisation which according to information from many different sources has degenerated over time from a political movement combining Marxist and Islamic elements into a psycho-sect with a history of heavy brainwashing and repression of its members. The Rajavi couple rules the organisation in a totalitarian style combined with an elaborate personality cult. According to Human Rights Watch and a number of ex-members – some of which testified in a meeting of the Iran delegation last year -, dissident members "were tortured, beaten and held in solitary confinement for years at military camps in Iraq after they criticized the group’s policies and undemocratic practices, or indicated that they planned to leave the organization." Some were even sent to Abu Ghraib in order to be tortured by Saddam Hussein’s security forces. According to Human Rights Watch, even deaths have been reported. Married couples were forced to divorce, children were separated from their parents against their will in order to be sent off into orphanages or foster families in Europe and the US.
The PMOI members are no ‘freedom fighters’. It is not the democratic, pluralistic, egalitarian, reform-oriented organisation, as which it presents itself. Within today’s Iran, it does not play any role as a serious opposition force. For the Iranian public, the Mudjahedeen have discredited themselves completely due to their internal organisation but also due to their collaboration with Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran. The lack of democracy is not in doubt and we do not need this group for confirmation.
We urge all members of the European Parliament who are engaged for a more democratic Iran to be extremely circumspect and cautious vis-à-vis this group.
Sincerely Yours
Michael Gahler, Vice-Chair Foreign Affairs Committee (PPE)
Christa Prets, Vice-Chair Iran Delegation (PSE)
Annemie Neyts, Coordinator Foreign Affairs Committee, President of the European Party of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE)
Angelika Beer, President of the Iran Delegation (Greens/EFA)
Tobias Pflüger, Member Iran Delegation, Coordinator Security and Defence Sub-Committee (GUE/NGL)
* The Iranian abbreviation Mujahideen-y-Khalq (MKO) is equally used.
PMOI /MKO still remain on the EU and US terrorist lists, while the National Council of Resistance (NCR), basically a cover up organisation for the PMOI, is only on the US terrorist list and not on the European one.
