(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The European Union said yesterday it would appeal against an EU court ruling that the Palestinian group Hamas should be removed from the bloc's terrorist list.
The move was criticised by Hamas but welcomed by Israel, which had condemned last month's decision by the bloc's second-highest tribunal that the executive had failed to make its case for blacklisting the movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini noted in a statement that the General Court made its ruling on procedural grounds. As a result of the appeal, Hamas will remain on the EU's terrorism list and its assets will remain frozen pending a judgment by the Court of Justice. The General Court found that the decision to sanction Hamas, which Israel holds responsible for years of violence against it, was based on media reports, not considered analysis.
The EU will challenge the General Court's finding that the EU must provide evidence that Hamas remains a terrorist group when it updates its terror list as well as the argument that the EU cannot use evidence from the Internet, an EU official said.
Mogherini said the EU was also studying "other appropriate remedial actions" it could take to avoid similar court decisions in future removing groups from the terrorism list.
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