EU assembly calls for end to Iran group blacklist

AP: The European Parliament has asked France to make sure an Iranian opposition group in exile is taken off the EU's terrorist list in line with a recent court ruling.

The Associated Press

By ROBERT WIELAARD

STRASBOURG, France (AP) – The European Parliament has asked France to make sure an Iranian opposition group in exile is taken off the EU's terrorist list in line with a recent court ruling.

In a Dec. 15 letter made public Wednesday, a senior assembly official told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that keeping the People's Mujahedeen of Iran on the list was illegal, unfair and counterproductive.

France now holds the EU presidency.

European Parliament Vice president Alejo Vidal-Quadras cited a Dec. 4 ruling by the European Court of Justice that EU governments have not provided sufficient proof to blacklist the group.

The ruling was the third in favor of the PMOI, which the U.S. also considers a terrorist organization.

The Paris-based PMOI says it is not a terrorist group and has waged a six-year legal battle to clear its name.

The PMOI dates to the days of resistance to the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in the 1960s.

It was once allied with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but moved to Iraq in the 1980s. It has been on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997 and the EU's since 2002.