The European Union’s highest court on Wednesday ruled that Hamas was and remains a terrorist group and therefore should not have been removed from the terrorist blacklist by the EU second-highest court in 2014. The high court now sent the case back to the original court with an order to rectify.
The EU second highest court ordered Hamas be removed from the terrorist blacklist because their listing had been based on media and internet reports, rather than on a fact-based legal ruling. Hamas had claimed that the decision to put it on the EU terror list was made without inviting its representatives to a hearing nor giving them the opportunity to review the evidence.
The 2014 ruling noted, however, that it did not “imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group.” It also added that Hamas assets must remain frozen for three months pending an appeal.
Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress said Wednesday’s ruling “sends a clear message that those who oppose peace in the Middle East by acts of murder and terror have no place within the European Union.”