Delisting of People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran by US

Delisting of People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran by the US and Rule Of Law

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/ MEK), the largest Iranian opposition group, reached a historic milestone by becoming the first organization to successfully petition for its removal from the State Departments Foreign Terrorist Organization list. The removal comes after no less than 18 court rulings in its favor and more than 15 years of litigation. The United States joins the UK and EU as the third judiciary to side with the PMOI against the foreign policy decisions of the government.

This action put an end to a long legal and political battle for the Iranian resistance to get a clean bill of health and was a major blow to the policy of appeasement vis-a-vis Tehran. It was no secret that the PMOI was listed in an attempt to curry favor with Tehran. Actually, on October 9, 1997, just a day after the Clinton administration designated the PMOI as a foreign terrorist organization, a senior US administration official said that this was a “good will gesture” toward Iran. The fallacy of that approach is self-evident.

Despite finally being afforded due process, the PMOI has consistently been the target of a smear campaign seeking to demonize the organization and undermine its credibility. The truth of the matter is that apologists of the regime have long made claims of the PMOI’s unpopularity in order to dismiss their legitimacy as a viable alternative to the regime. In doing so, they construct a narrative in which the West is forced to choose between a disastrous military conflict or further appeasement of the regime. These apologists consistently reach the conclusion that peace can be achieved through dialogue, and all that is required is patience and cultural sensitivity.

The allegations against the PMOI have been consistently repeated in order to distract from the real issues at hand.

The most telling sign of bias in this coverage is the concentrated effort to ignore the court rulings on the matter, despite the fact that it is all public record. Can anyone believe that the PMOI somehow bribed all these courts into ruling in their favor? In 2008, the UK’s highest court, led by Lord Phillips, the lord chief justice, reiterated the decision by the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission the previous year that to proscribe the group was "perverse." The ruling pointed out the review of both open and closed material rejected the notion of any connection between the PMOI and terrorism. The court ruled “it is a matter for comment and regret that the decision-making in the case has signally fallen short of the standards which our public law sets and which those affected by public decisions have come to expect.”

Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks later on revealed that the UK diplomatic staff were more concerned about Tehran’s reaction to the delisting and scrambled to “buffer” the impact of the decision on relations with the regime than with abiding by the rule of law in the UK.

Another constant claim is that the PMOI is unpopular amongst Iranians, and represents a fringe movement. The assertion that this popularity can be measured in Iran under the clerical rule is inherently flawed. The Islamic Republic is neither democratic nor pluralistic society. There are no impartial polls in Iran, nor is there freedom of speech or public debate. The clerical regime has executed some 120,000 PMOI supporters and activists over the years. That figure itself is a strong indicator of the PMOI popularity and grass roots support.

Given the atrocities committed against the PMOI activists, it is naïve to imagine people would be willing to openly declare their support for the organization. Even today, supporters of the PMOI are subject to arbitrary rules by the regime’s judiciary. Gholamreza Khosravi, a civil engineer, was initially given a seven-year sentence for contributing to the satellite TV station Simaye Azadi, which is sympathetic to the PMOI. This sentence then was inexplicably escalated to a death sentence, despite international outcry. In fact, following the 2009 uprising, 11 people were sentenced to execution for instigating the uprisings. All of them were PMOI supporters and activists.

Following the general strike and protests in the Tehran Bazaar on October 3, a trade association with close ties to the regime blamed the protests on the PMOI, according to Reuters: “The statement also blamed the Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e Khalq for causing the unrest in Tehran's bazaar.”

If the PMOI was an irrelevant organization, it would not be the subject of an extensive propaganda campaign. Actually, maintaining the terror tag on the PMOI and its dire consequences was a pillar of Tehran’s foreign policy over the years, and the regime has consistently brought up the issue of the PMOI and its inclusion on various terrorist lists as a top priority during negotiations with the West. As the Wall Street Journal reported on May 7, 2008: “Iranian officials for years have made suppression of the PMOI a priority in negotiations with Western governments over Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues, according to several diplomats who were involved in those talks.” It is not surprising since it was the PMOI, based on information provided to it by its network of activists in Iran, which revealed the existence of Iranian clandestine nuclear projects in 2002 and continued as a major source of revelations. An overwhelming majority of its revelations were corroborated by the IAEA over the years.

It is very telling that since the delisting, the regime has dedicated hour-long programs to discuss the organization, while simultaneously dismissing it as irrelevant. On their English sites, the regime refers to the organization as a “grouplet,” as if this would somehow reduce the effectiveness of the PMOI. The regime also operates a number of web sites that are solely dedicated to publishing propaganda against the PMOI and its members. No other opposition organization strikes fear in the heart of the regime like the PMOI.

Despite the desperate efforts of the regime and its sympathizers to demonize the PMOI, the truth speaks for itself. The PMOI had its day in court and won, setting a legal precedent in the process. After the delisting the Iranian political landscape has changed and the mullahs’ hard days are ahead – and no amount of words or propaganda will change that reality.

Lord King of West Bromwich is a ranking member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom

ENDS

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