EU removes Dutch branch of al-Aqsa foundation from terrorism list

The EU Foreign Affairs Council has endorsed the results of the review of the EU list of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts and updated the corresponding regulation. "One entity was removed from the list, Stichting Al Aqsa ,following their decision to wind down their activities," said the Council in a statement following its meeting here.The EU had put the Stichting Al-Aqsa, an Islamic social foundation in Netherlands on its list of terrorist organisation in 2005.However, the EU court in Luxembourg in 2010 ruled that the European Union acted illegally in freezing assets of the Stichting Al-Aqsa.In April 2003 the Netherlands had imposed the measure on the Stichting al-Aqsa, the local branch of the Palestinian al-Aqsa Foundation, on the grounds that its humanitarian fund-raising activities were benefiting terrorist groups in the Middle East.