An EU court has removed Hamas from the union’s list of terror groups, after it found that the EU Council’s decision to keep the Palestinian Islamist movement on the list was flawed.
In the decision, the judges said that the Council’s previous decision to add Hamas to the list of terrorist organisation was not based on facts but “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet.”
As a result of these findings, the Court annulled the measures against Hamas.
However, despite the annulment, the court said that the funding freeze would continue for three months in case an appeal is brought before the court and that the move does not imply a reassessment of the group’s activities.
The court said:
“The Court stresses that those annulments, on fundamental procedural grounds, do not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group within the meaning of the Common Position.”
In 2001, Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, were added to the list of designated entities and people whose funds would be frozen after EU member states adopted a “common position” and a regulation to combat terrorism.
Hamas, the political group, was added two years later, but the decision has been hotly contested by the Palestinian group, which won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Hamas recently clashed with Israel during the 50-day Gaza war in the summer, and as a group are committed to the destruction of Israel under its Charter.
