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position of strength, rather than displaying craven weakness. The EU should be offering support to those who oppose the Mullahs, rather than seeking to tarnish them with lies and distortions. The EU and the 500 million citizens it represents are proud of their democracy and its principles. These principles are in danger of being compromised by a few bureaucrats who have made the terror label a bargaining chip to curry favour with the very regime that is one of the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism. In the fight against terrorism, we must keep the moral high ground and respect our democratic principles. Otherwise, how different will our democracy be from those tyrannies we so despise? It is time for EU bureaucrats to practise what they preach. Pay heed to the ruling of the European Court of Justice and remove the PMOI from its terror list once and for all.
    Terrorism is the greatest threat of our time. Terrorists not only endanger our lives, they also challenge our freedoms and our democratic system of government. The difference between democracy and tyranny is the system of checks and balances. What made it frustratingly difficult for me was the fact that some bureaucrats in the EU were contemplating compromising this sacred principle for the sake of political expediency. What made it even more perplexing was that these political leaders had been given the mandate of safeguarding our democratic system. For them to seek to undermine the system under the guise of combating terrorism was particularly perverse.
    Since the late 1990s, the issue of the PMOI was part and parcel of the EU’s negotiations with the Iranian regime in a futile attempt to moderate Tehran’s behaviour. For instance, on 21 October 2004, the Agence France-Presse agency reported:
    According to the preparatory text for European proposals on the Iranian nuclear programme, the EU 3 underscored that if Iran complies with the EU on the nuclear issue, we would continue to regard the PMOI (Iranian resistance group) as a terrorist organisation.
    The official document made it abundantly clear that the issue was finding ways to placate the Mullahs and had nothing to do with the merit and conduct of the Iranian resistance movement.
    The continued determination of the PMOI, over many years, to clear its name and remove the unfair and unlawful terrorist designation with which it had been labelled, had become an almost classic example of a David and Goliath struggle. Victory in the British courts and subsequently in the EU courts was a first major taste of success for the PMOI and a severe blow to the Mullahs in Tehran. It was also a clear demonstration that the PMOI and its network of international supporters could achieve the impossible.

    1. A Pentagon report of January 2013 identified Massoud Khodabandeh and Anne Singleton as trained MOIS agents.

 
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    Interviews with Political Prisoners Refugee Camp, Tirana, Albania, May 2014
    Najmeh Hadj Heydari
    ‘My name is Najmeh Hadj Heydari. I am Azam’s sister [see Chapter 6 ]. I was arrested in the city of Saveh in 1982 and taken to Evin in Tehran. While in the torture chamber I told them I was pregnant. They did not believe me and started to torture me with cables, whipping the soles of my bare feet. In the public ward they asked me what I thought about the Mullahs and Khomeini. I said they deserve to die for usurping the freedom of the people of Iran. A half hour later they took me to Ward 311, the punishment ward.
    There were six or seven people in each cell, usually awaiting execution. They would open the cell three times a day for food. Then it fell to once a day. I was placed in solitary confinement for 45 days and only allowed out to go to the washroom. We were not allowed to shower and we were given no bedding. I was freezing. 45 days later I was brought back to the larger cell. A girl called Maryam Yazdi Ostovar, who was only 16 years old, had a bloody mark on her left leg, and her feet were shredded and