The high court was told yesterday that a government ban on 21 foreign so-called terrorist groups operating in Britain was so draconian as to restrict their members' civil rights.
Had the Terrorism Act 2000 been in force during the years of South African apartheid, Lord Lester QC claimed, movements such as the African National Congress would have been proscribed in this country. Beginning the first legal challenge to the act, lawyers for two banned groups, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the People's Mojadehin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), said it effectively protected foreign governments, "however, repressive, tyrannical or undemocratic" they might be.
Human rights campaigners, who back the application for a judicial review, claim the ban undermines liberties guaranteed by European human rights legislation. The act, predating September 11, was intended to prevent exiled
groups using Britain as a base for terrorist operations.
Its provisions are so widely drawn, its opponents claim, that wearing an item of clothing arousing suspicion that someone is a "member or supporter of a proscribed organisation" can be deemed a terrorist offence.
The Kurdish community in Britain, thought to number 60,000 and concentrated in north-east London, has been at the forefront of the campaign. Sit-downs have been staged at the Home Office.
The PKK has fought a 25-year-long guerrilla war for independence for the Kurdish-speaking regions of Turkey. Since their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was imprisoned in Istanbul in 1999, and tried and sentenced to death (though
this has not been carried out), the PKK has been on ceasefire. It is considering dismantling its paramilitary structure in Europe and Turkey, changing its name, and adopting constitutional politics.
Lawyers for the PKK and PMOI accuse the government of failing to allow for groups fighting a democratic cause against oppressive regimes. Lord Lester argued that banning the PMOI was a breach of members' rights to political
expression, peaceful assembly and enjoyment of property - including its fund-raising.
Founded in 1965 as a secular movement opposing the Shah's dictatorship, the PMOI went on to fight against the Islamic governments that succeeded him, attacking government and military targets.
The home secretary has rejected applications from the PKK and the PMOI to remove the ban. They can pursue their complaints with the proscribed organisation's appeal committee.