Reuters is reporting that the European Union (EU) will appeal the recent EU court decision ordering the removal of Hamas from the EU list of terrorist organizations. According to the report:
January 19, 2015 [Reuters] The European Union will appeal an EU court decision ordering the removal of the Palestinian group Hamas from the EU terrorism blacklist, foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
Mogherini said foreign ministers from the 28 member states decided at a meeting on Monday to appeal the decision taken by the General Court of the European Union on December 17.
‘This ruling was clearly based on procedural grounds and did not imply any assessment by the court of the merits of designating the Hamas as a terrorist organisation,’ Mogherini said in a statement.
Last month’s ruling by the EU’s second highest court had said that the blacklisting of Hamas in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived from the media and the internet.
Hamas was put on the EU terrorist list as part of broader measures to fight terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks and its funds were frozen.
Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory of Gaza since 2007, had appealed against its inclusion on the blacklist on several grounds.”
Read the rest here.
In December 2014, the GMBDW reported that Hamas had won a court ruling that could conceivably lead to it being removed from the EU list of terrorist organizations. The GMBDW posted a Featured Story earlier this month identifying a French Hamas lawyer and other Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders/entities as playing a key role in the court case.
The GMBDW also reported last week that Hamas leaders had praised the recent stabbing attack on a Jerusalem bus as “heroic and brave” and noted that the group had posted an instructional video on stabbing three weeks before the attack.
The Hamas charter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine.”
For a profile of Hamas, go here.