EU keeps Hamas on terror list despite appeal process

The European Union has kept Hamas on its terrorism blacklist despite a controversial court decision ordering Brussels to remove the Palestinian group from the register.

Brussels has lodged an appeal against a December ruling by the bloc’s second-highest court that Hamas should be delisted for the first time since 2001.

“Hamas stays on the list during Council’s appeal to December judgement,” Susanne Kiefer, a spokeswoman for the European Council said on Twitter.

The appeal process is expected to take around a year and a half.

Hamas’s military wing was added to the EU’s first terrorism blacklist drawn up in December 2001 in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the United States. The EU then blacklisted the political wing of Hamas in 2003.

But the General Court of the EU ruled last year that the Hamas blacklisting was based not on sound legal judgements but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet. Israel hit out at the original decision to remove Hamas.

The row over the listing of Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory of Gaza since 2007, has threatened to undermine recent moves by Brussel to play a bigger role in reviving the moribund Middle East peace process.

Hamas has said the EU’s appeal against the judgement by the General Court of the European Union is “immoral.” Hamas’s funds in Europe have remained frozen since the December decision.

“It is unjust and wrong to our people and legitimate resistance, and also encourages the occupation to continue its crimes,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

“We reject this decision and call for its review, and to remove all forms of injustice against our people and Hamas,” he continued.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian court as annulled a ruling that described Hamas as a “terrorist organisation.”

Last month, an Egyptian court designated Hamas as a “terrorist” group over claims that it had carried out attacks in Egypt using tunnels linking the blockaded coastal enclave to the Sinai Peninsula.

In early March however, the Egyptian government said it would appeal the verdict labelling Hamas as a terrorist group.

Egyptian lawyer Samir Sabri, who filed the lawsuit, withdrew the case on Thursday, rendering the ruling invalid.

Sabri said on Friday that his decision to withdraw the case was aimed at “removing obstacles which Egypt’s political leadership might face in serving its role in the Palestinian reconciliation.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described the move as “an important step in the right direction.”

“We are hoping the decision would lead to more stable relations with Egypt,” he said.

Egypt, a pivotal mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has played a role in the reconciliation process between rival Hamas and Fatah groups since the former took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.