{mosimage}Commenting on POAC’s decision to refuse leave to appeal, Lord Corbett, chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, said: “I am not surprised. POAC found, on the facts, that the Home Secretary got the law wrong, ignored the evidence, asked the wrong question and so reached a ‘perverse’ decision.

{mosimage}PRESS RELEASE

STATEMENT BY LORD CORBETT,

Lord Corbett's statement on POAC's decision to refuse the Secretary of State's Application for Permission to Appeal

Commenting on POAC’s decision to refuse leave to appeal, Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, said:

“I am not surprised. POAC found, on the facts, that the Home Secretary got the law wrong, ignored the evidence, asked the wrong question and so reached a ‘perverse’ decision.

“The Home Secretary should now admit to the mistake and implement POAC's judgment, which ordered the removal of Iran's main democratic opposition, the PMOI, from the list of proscribed organisations.”

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom
14 December 2007

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Note to editors:
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom is comprised of over 50 Members of Parliament and Peers from across the political spectrum. It has the backing of the majority of MPs and more than 200 Peers in its endeavours for human rights and democracy in Iran.

The PMOI – Iran’s principal opposition force – is a member organisation in the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran. Some 120,000 of its members and sympathisers have been executed by the mullahs’ regime on political grounds. The NCRI was the first to alert the international community to the regime’s secret nuclear projects in August 2002.

The PMOI were proscribed in the UK by then-Home Secretary Jack Straw MP in 2001. The same proscription was used as the basis of the group’s inclusion in the EU’s terrorist list. On 12 December 2006, however, the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in a landmark verdict “annulled” the EU’s decision to place the group in the terrorist list. At the UK Government’s bidding, the EU announced in June 2007 that it would maintain the PMOI in the list.

In a landmark verdict on 30 November 2007, the Proscribed Organisations Appeals Commission (POAC) ordered the Home Secretary to remove the PMOI from the list of proscribed organisations. In its judgement, POAC further found that the decision of the Home Secretary to refuse an application made by 35 MPs and Peers calling for deproscription of the PMOI was "flawed", "perverse" and "must be set aside".

Earlier today, POAC rejected the Secretary of State's leave for appeal against its 30 Nov. judgment.