Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6156445/Antonio-Cassese-The-Illegality-of-the-EU-Council-Decision-2008-583-EC-concerning-PMOI
Timestamp: 2015-09-03 02:22:44
Document Index: 588797706

Matched Legal Cases: ['§64', '§ 55', '§ 36', '§ 201', '§ 39', '§ 45', '§45']

P. 1Antonio Cassese: The Illegality of the EU-Council Decision 2008/583/EC concerning PMOIAntonio Cassese: The Illegality of the EU-Council Decision 2008/583/EC concerning PMOIRatings: 5.0 (1)|Views: 542|Likes: 0Published by IranActua NieuwsMore info:Categories:Types, School Work, HomeworkPublished by: IranActua Nieuws on Sep 22, 2008Copyright:Public DomainAvailability:Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.download as PDF, TXT or read online from ScribdFlag for inappropriate content|Add to collectionSee moreSee lesshttps://www.scribd.com/doc/6156445/Antonio-Cassese-The-Illegality-of-the-EU-Council-Decision-2008-583-EC-concerning-PMOI05/09/2014pdftextoriginal 1
Professor Dr. Antonio Cassese
Via Belgio, 7 - 50126 Firenze (ITALY)Tel. (+39) 055 65 30 800Tel/Fax (+39) 055 68 21 060
THE ILLEGALITY OF THE EU COUNCIL DECISION2008/583/EC CONCERNING PMOI
I. The Basic Factual and Legal Ingredients of the CaseII. The Council Decision Seriously Breaches the Text of Provisions of Council CommonPosition 2001/931/CFSP(A)
In That It Targets an Entity other than the Persons Referred to in French NationalDecisions(B)
In That the Council Decision Makes Reference to “Decisions” Taken by FrenchAuthorities that Lack Judicial IndependenceIII. The Council Decision Seriously Infringes the Rights of the Defence(A) The Defence Rights under EU Norms and Case law(B) The Council’s Breach of the Rights of the Defence:(I) Breach of the Right to a Fair Hearing(i) French Law Relevant to the Issue of a Fair Hearing(ii) Conclusion on this Point(II) Breach of the Presumption of InnocenceIV. The Council Failed to Comply with the Obligation to State ReasonsV. The Council Failed to Notify the OMPI
Taking Its Decision to Continue with theFreezing of OMPI’ s Assets.VI. The Council Decision circumvents the Judicial Safeguards Provided by French LawVII. The French Prosecutorial Action is Glaringly Inconsistent with the Principle of Fair andExpeditious Justice and the Presumption of InnocenceVIII The Council Action Amounts to a Patent Misuse of PowersIX Summing up and Conclusion
21. I have been asked to give an Expert Opinion on the legality of the Decision 2008/583/EC takenon 15 July by the EU Council with regard to the listing of the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (PMOI or OMPI) as one of the terrorist groups or organizations to which Council CommonPosition of 27 December 2001 may apply.
I. The Basic Factual and Legal Ingredients of the Case
2. On 15 July 2008 the Council of the European Union made a decision (2008/583/EC) concerningthe People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran. It first took note of the fact that, since 24 June 2008,the “competent authority” ’s decision that served as a basis for including the People’s MujahidinOrganization of Iran on the list of persons and entities subject to the measures set out in Article 2(1)and (2) in Council Regulation (EC) no 2580/2001 (the List), was no longer in force. The Councilthen stated that it had decided nevertheless to continue to include the People’s MujahidinOrganization of Iran on the List in light of “new information”. The “new information” consisted of three decisions of the antiterrorist Prosecutor’s office of the Court of first instance of Paris openinga judicial inquiry for terrorism against “alleged members of the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran”.3. I will show below that this decision is contrary not only to the text of Community law but also tosome fundamental human rights laid down in the settled case law of the European Court of Justice.
II. The Council Decision Seriously Breaches the Text of Provisions of Council CommonPosition 2001/931/CFSP(A)
In That It Targets an Entity other than the Persons Referred to in the FrenchDecisions
4. The Council Common Position provides in Article 1(4) that the Council, in taking decisionsconcerning the “List of persons or groups” envisaged in the Common Position, must indicate that “adecision has been taken by a competent authority
in respect of the persons, groups and entitiesconcerned ” (emphasis added). A literal and logical construction of this provision clearly shows that,to justify the inclusion of a person or a group on the List, the Council is duty bound to producedecisions of national (judicial) authorities concerning
the specific person or group
that are put onthe List. Plainly, the decision may not concern a person or a group
the one specificallyindicated on the List.5. The decision of 15 July 2008 is designed to keep the PMOI on the List, although on groundsother than those previously adduced by the Council. However, the “evidence” this decision gives inthe annexed “Statement of Reasons” does not concern at all the PMOI but only a number of individuals that the Statement defines as “alleged members of the People’s Mujahidin Organizationof Iran (PNMOI)”. This is a blatant violation of the clear wording and also of the very logic of theaforementioned Article 1(4). It is also contrary to reason. Why should an organization be heldaccountable for the actions of persons that are
to be its members? First of all, it is not surethat those persons do in fact belong to the organization. Secondly, assuming they do, it is notspecified what role they play in the organization. It is contrary to any principle of law and inparticular of criminal law that mere membership in an association or organization involves thecriminal liability of the association or organization for any criminal offence that individualmembers may have committed. If this was the case, many political parties in Europe enjoying the
3legal status of associations should be incriminated on account of the misdeeds of some of their partymembers!
(B) In That the Council Decision Refers to “Decisions” Taken by French Authorities thatLack Judicial Independence
6. I submit that one should not pass over in silence other deficiencies of the Council decision. One,which could be regarded as minor but nevertheless stands out as a considerable flaw, is as follows.7. Under Council Common Position 2001/931/CFSP of 27 December 2001 the freezing of assetsbelonging to a person or a group suspected of terrorism may be made on the basis of a “decision”taken by a national “competent authority”, that is a “judicial authority” or “an equivalent competentauthority in that area” (Article 1(4)).8. Clearly, by “judicial authority” is meant any state body that is independent of the executivepower and in addition exhibits the other hallmarks of judicial organs, namely impartiality andrespect for due process principles (
). This is the notion of “tribunal”consistently upheld by the European Court of Human Rights: in
Switzerland (judgmentof 29 April 1988, §64), the Court held that "a ‘tribunal’ is characterised in the substantive sense of the term by its judicial function, that is to say determining matters within its competence on thebasis of rules of law and after proceedings conducted in a prescribed manner ... It must also satisfy aseries of further requirements - independence, in particular of the executive; impartiality; durationof its members’ terms of office; guarantees afforded by its procedure - several of which appear inthe text of Article 6 para. 1 itself". This notion had already been propounded in, among many othercases, in
Le Compte, Van Leuven and De Meyere
(judgment of 23 June 1981,
§ 55) and
Sramek v.
(22 October 1984, § 36) as well as in
(judgment of 8 July 1986, § 201). It was restated in
(judgment of 27 August1991, § 39). Interestingly in
the Court pointed out that “for the purposesof Article 6 para. 1 a tribunal need not be a court of law integrated within the standard judicialmachinery. It may, like the Board at issue, be set up to deal with a specific subject matter whichcan be appropriately administered outside the ordinary court system. What is important to ensurecompliance with Article 6 para. 1 are the guarantees, both substantive and procedural, which are inplace” (judgment of 1 July 1997, § 45). In
van der Hurk v.
the Court held that “thepower to give a binding decision which may not be altered by a non-judicial authority to thedetriment of an individual party is inherent in the very notion of a ‘tribunal’ ” (judgment of 19 April1994, §45).9. The expression “equivalent competent authority” clearly must encompass any state body that,even though devoid of some basic judicial features (such as those relating to the mode of appointment of members of the body, the length of their mandate, and so on), shows at a minimumtwo requirements: (i) the ability to make evaluations independently of the executive power, i.e.without being bound by instructions of the executive; and (ii) respect for due process principles,namely the ability to undertake an appraisal of the factual elements and the relevant evidenceconcerning the subject-matter in dispute on the basis of a fair and adversarial evaluation of theviews of the contending parties (or of all the parties concerned). Thus this notion may embrace, forexample, an administrative body of inquiry, or a quasi-judicial monitoring body or any othersupervisory institution that is not part of the judiciary. Nevertheless, what matters is that the bodyshould exhibit the two features I have mentioned.
More From This UserAmnesty International - Rapport Iran 2009IranActua NieuwsBCVDI waarschuwt voor oorlogsmisdaden tegen Iraanse vluchtelingen in IrakIranActua NieuwsReactie van Minister De Gucht op de uitspraken over de Holocaust door Iraanse president Ahmadinejad - 28 januari 2009IranActua NieuwsSummary of Legal Opions about the maintaining of the PMOI on the EU asset freeze listIranActua NieuwsIn Search of Justice (ISJ): Formation of a European Community for de-listing the PMOIIranActua NieuwsEU's Resolutie over Iran - 4 september 2008IranActua NieuwsVerklaring van de EU over de dreigende executie van de heer Amir Amrollahi in Iran - 12 augustus 2008IranActua NieuwsHuman Rights Abuse in Iran 2007 - 20 februari 2008IranActua NieuwsResolutie betreffende de executies van minderjarigen in Iran - 8 juli 2008IranActua NieuwsIran: End executions by stoning - 15 januari 2008IranActua NieuwsWijziging Sanctieregeling Iran 2007 - 1 juli 2008IranActua NieuwsMondelinge vraag van mevrouw Els Schelfhout over PMOI - 12 juni 2008IranActua NieuwsEU's Resolutie over Iran - 19 juni 2008IranActua Nieuws