[JURIST] Britain's Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission [official website] Friday ruled [judgment, PDF] that the UK should remove the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) [group website] from its list of terrorist organizations. 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 commission ruled there was no evidence that the PMOI had been involved with terrorism since 2003 and so no longer satisfied any of the criteria for appearing on the blacklist. NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi called the six year battle [press release] to remove the organization from the list a "magnificent victory for justice and the Resistance as well as a message of firmness to religious fascism."

UK Minister of State Tony McNulty [official profile] said that the government was disappointed with the decision and intends to appeal. The PMOI was added to Britain's list of proscribed organisations under the Terrorism Act 2000 [text] in March 2001. 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. Reuters has more. The Guardian has additional coverage.