EU Court Overturns Decision To Put PKK On EU Terror List
Associated Press
April 3, 2008
BRUSSELS, Belgium: A European Union court on Thursday overturned the bloc's
decision to place the Kurdish guerrilla group PKK and its political wing on the
EU terror list.
The Luxembourg-based EU Court of First Instance said that decisions made by EU
governments in 2002 and 2004 to blacklist the two groups and freeze their assets
violated the bloc's law.
It is the latest of several court decisions overturning similar EU decisions on
the grounds that the groups added to the terror list were not properly informed
of the decision to blacklist them nor given a right to appeal the decision.
The court said the autonomy-seeking PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, and its
political wing, known as KONGRA-GEL, were not in positions "to understand,
clearly and unequivocally, the reasoning" that led European Union governments to
add them to the terror list.
The PKK was added to the list in 2002, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the
United States. Its political wing was added in 2004. The United States and
Turkey also list the PKK as a terrorist organization. Fighting between the
guerrillas and Turkish troops has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984.
The Kurdish group won an appeal last year giving it a right to a hearing and a
new case to get it removed from the terror list.
An Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, won a 2006 EU
court case annulling their listing. That case set a legal precedent and forced
the EU to revamp the way it decides which groups and people to add to its terror
list.
Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has said the EU's
anti-terror rules violated democratic principles.
EU nations decided in April 2007 to inform groups and individuals when they are
placed on the terror list. Those listed will now be able to ask why they were
put on the list and why their assets are frozen. But there are still no
procedures for an independent review and for compensation for possible human
rights breaches.
The EU has about 60 organizations and individuals on its terrorist list.
