France

France to Probe Killing of Iranian

French authorities plan to investigate the 1999 killing of a top Iranian general, which was claimed by an Iranian opposition group based in France, judicial officials said Monday.

Brig. Gen. Ali Sayyad Shirazi, deputy chief of the joint staff command of the Iranian armed forces, was gunned down in April 1999 in front of his home in Tehran by men dressed as city cleaners. The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran claimed responsibility.

The new investigation stems from a complaint Shirazi’s family filed with the French justice system two years ago for "murder and complicity in murder," judicial officials said on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

French judicial authorities say they have the authority to investigate the case because the political wing of the People’s Mujahedeen is based in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris.

The People’s Mujahedeen, which seeks the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic government, is listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department and the European Union. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein let the group operate camps in Iraq from which it staged attacks on Iran.

The group says it is a peaceful movement of exiled Iranian opponents, and that its militants in Iraq have handed their weapons over to U.S.-led forces. A representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

France’s justice system has been investigating the People’s Mujahedeen since 2001. In 2003, French police carried out a sweep against the group and dozens of members were arrested, including Maryam Rajavi, the head of the group’s political wing. The operation set off protests, with two Mujahedeen supporters burning themselves to death.

Seventeen people, including Rajavi, were placed under investigation” a step short of being charged” on suspicion of associating with or financing terrorist groups. She was held for about two weeks before being released.

The Associated Press – September 17, 2007

September 19, 2007 0 comment

France

Nejat Society Letter to The Ambassador of the Republic of France in Tehran

Attention: The Ambassador of the Republic of France in Tehran

From: Nejat Society

July. 07

Your Excellency,

We in the Nejat Society would like to draw your good attention to a very crucial matter relating the security of the defectors and opponents of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in France.

To introduce ourselves, we are former members of MKO who have managed to flee the organisation from the Ashraf Camp in Iraq. We have organised ourselves to help the victims of a terrorist cult including the former members of the organisation as well as the families of the present members who have no trace of their beloved ones inside the MKO.

We wish to inform you that on 17 June 2007, about 50 members of a proscribed terrorist cult named the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO), who had been dispatched from Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany, attacked a seminar organised by the Association for Supporting the Emigrants and Iranians in France. The venue was at FIAP in the 14th District of Paris. The attackers used knives, broken bottles, etc and injured many of the guests as well as some of the organisers. More than 13 people were seriously injured. The incident was immediately reported by the local and international media. After police intervention, some of the MKO members were arrested and taken into custody.

There are many queries raised relating this incident; such as why the MKO elements attended the meeting and what was their purpose and why they brought recording cameras with themselves to the meeting and why they only used the elements residing in the countries other than France. All these factors prove that the act was previously planed and organised. We have also been informed about the depth of involvement of the leaders of the MKO, currently based in north of Paris in Auvers-sur-Oise. The following information has been revealed to us:

This terrorist act had been approved and arranged at the highest levels of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation and the National Council of Resistance (NCR) leadership and the cult leader Maryam Rajavi was involved in every detail of the operation. Mr Alaoddin Turan and Ms Shahrzad Haj Seyyed Javadi have acted as the "intelligence officer" and "operational officer" for this operation, conducting every detail from Mrs Maryam Rajavi’s headquarters in the north of Paris. The operation had been named "Destruction of the Nest of Snakes".

The "executive field officer" of the operation has been Mr Mohammad Hayati (aka: Siavash) who has been a military leader of MKO from the time of the Shah and is currently a member of the MKO as well as the NCR. He conducted the attack using his men and had communication with them through mobile phones. During the years 1981 to 1986, Mohammad Hayati was a member of executive committee of MKO in France and after the departure of Mas’ud and Maryam Rajavi (cult leaders) to Baghdad in 1986; he was transferred to Iraq as the commander of one of five military bases of the National Liberation Army (NLA) of MKO backed by Saddam Hussein. Hayati has directed major military operations in suppressing the uprising of the Iraqi Kurds and Shiite Moslems as well as insurgencies inside Iranian territory.

According to news received from the Americans as well as the disaffected members of Ashraf Camp in Iraq, the name of Mohammad Hayati has been registered in the list of MKO members in the camp and up to 6 months ago, he has had regular contacts with the American forces in charge of the camp. It must be taken into account that his illegal move to France is not merely to disrupt a defectors’ meeting. His role was and still is to assassinate the discontented members and opponents in France and other parts of Europe, something he has been doing even before the Iranian revolution. His mission of course has not been accomplished yet.

We believe that Mohammad Hayati has specifically been sent from Iraq after the announcement of holding a meeting by the above mentioned association. He has been sent by Mas’ud and Maryam Rajavi and has been appointed to command this terror operation in Paris. He had been present at the scene from 12:00 on Sunday June 17 and had coordinated every movement by mobile phone. He had been in constant contact with the MKO headquarters in the north of Paris and had been reporting every step directly to Maryam Rajavi.

Mohammad Hayati was arrested by the police inside the FIAP building and was transferred to the police station. The police after examining his documents clearly were aware of his false ID and false passport which was used to travel from the Netherlands. His true identity and his mission were immediately revealed to the police, but astonishingly he was soon released.

We alert the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the American forces in charge of Ashraf Camp that the terrorist MKO has been transferring some of its military and operational forces from Iraq (Ashraf Camp) to European countries to carry out similar attacks and specifically to assault and assassinate its critiques and converts.

All this is happening at a time that about 200 people, who have clearly renounced terrorism and the MKO after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are still being kept under extreme conditions by the American forces and do not have the right to seek asylum in other countries or to leave the place.

We would like to bring into your consideration the very fact that contrary to the misinformation of the cult through its massive propaganda machine which has been granted to this proscribed terrorist organisation (MKO), the cult has been clearly demonstrating its true face and its deeply rooted beliefs in using violence and terror to reach its goals.

During the raid made by the MKO tugs in Paris, Mr Mohammad Hassan Sobhani who was badly assaulted and beaten by the intruders was also arrested by the French Police. Amazingly the photograph that was taken of him in the police station was published in one of MKO’s websites. We are puzzled how the MKO elements could get hold of the French Police properties.

We wish to remind you that Mas’ud and Maryam Rajavi have mistaken France with Iraq of Saddam Hussein, where they used to detain and torture and even execute their opponents and their discontented members. We are expecting your government to give a through examination of the case and announce the obtained results to the public and take sufficient measures to make sure that the MKO tugs could not harass the Iranians residing in France anymore. We therefore are very concerned about the security of the emigrants and Iranians in France and we urge your government to adopt appropriate measures to ensure the security of the Iranians in France. We would be very pleased if you could give some sort of response to our communiqué.

Pictures we have received to date are attached.

1 – Picture of Mohammad Hayati standing among some policemen plus his earlier photos in the organisation

2 – Pictures of Mr Mohammad Hassan Sobhani who was badly beaten and injured by the MKO tugs plus the photo of him which was taken in the police station by the police and later appeared in the MKO site.

3 – Picture of Mr Ali Akbar Rastgu who was also badly beaten and injured by the MKO tugs.

Yours truly,

Nejat Society

Copy to:

– The office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tehran

– The office of the United Nations in Tehran

– The Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran

– The British Embassy in Tehran

– The Embassy of Iraq in Tehran

– The Elyse Palace “Paris

– The Media

July 15, 2007 0 comment

France

Iranian Woman Vs. MKO in French Court

"French judicial sources announced that an Iranian woman, who was injured in a terrorist operation by MKO in 2000 in Tehran, met French investigator after fours years of filing her complaint," AP reported from France.

Osaneh Mahmoudi had filed a complaint against terrorist organization of Mojahedin-e Khalq in France in 2003, because she had been injured in MKO’s terrorist operation. This session was the first to hear this diplomatic-judicial case in France.

Paris court started to investigate the complaint a year after it was submitted and then announced that French Judiciary is entitled to prosecute the MKO, which has been based in Auer-Sur-Oise for more than 20 years.

Several rockets were fired on two governmental buildings in Tehran on February 5, 2000. One person was killed and many other injured in the incident. MKO claimed responsibility for this terrorist act a few days later.

Mahmoudi’s attorney said that 7 people who were injured in the incident should file complaint.

French Judiciary started the investigation on the MKO in 2001. Paris court first investigated the group’s sabotaging operations but later, in June 2003, and then in March 2007, expanded its investigations to the group’s financial support for terrorism.

Nearly 170 MKO members of the MKO were arrested on June 17, 2003, but only 17 of them, including Maryam Rajavi, were prosecuted.

Entekhab reporting from AP, June 24, 2007

June 25, 2007 0 comment

France

Anniversary of Raid on a Sect

In Paris on Sunday 15 June, a judge ordered detention of the leader of MKO and a number of her followers to face trial for possible links with terrorism. The following is what the Observer reported of the French police raid to arrest the suspects and the aftermath.

The leafy rue des Gords in this little market town north of Paris hardly lives up to its reputation as a new world capital of terrorism.

It was here that hundreds of police smashed open the doors of suburban houses in a dawn raid which the French claimed had pre-empted worldwide strikes by the militant Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahideen.

About 20 members of the organisation were on hunger strike on the pavement this weekend, watched by riot police and comforted by neighbours who had lived alongside the exiled Mujahideen for 22 years. The operation, involving 1,300 police, concentrated on 21 rue des Gords, home of Maryam Radjavi, the most visible leader of what has been dismissed as a violent Marxist-Islamic sect.

Around the building a permanent encampment for followers had been set up. But police blocked attempts by residents – all political refugees – to return and collect their belongings as they continued to search cellars and attics.

The suicide attempts by fire in Paris, London, Rome and Berne focused attention on the movement without clarifying why France chose last week to turn on the Mujahideen, given refuge here after falling out with Tehran’s Islamic leadership.

Labelled as Maoist when it was founded in 1965, the Mujahideen worked alongside Ayotallah Khomeini when he planned the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. But the allies soon fell out and thousands of Mujahideen refugees sought sanctuary in France in 1981. They campaigned against oppression in Tehran, where their members were tortured and hanged in public.

Radjavi was still being held by police this weekend, among more than 160 people taken into custody. The DST, the French equivalent of MI5, claimed that she and her husband, Massoud, were ready to turn Auvers into their terrorist headquarters.

Referring to allegations by Iran that the Mujahideen were responsible for at least 500 murderous attacks inside the country, Pierre de Bousquet, the DST’s director, said the organisation could no longer claim that its aim was to defend human rights and bring about democracy.

‘The attempts at self-immolation to protest against the arrest of Madame Radjavi are proof of a new fanaticism,’ he said. ‘Auvers was to become the Mujahideen’s world headquarters after the loss of bases in Iraq.’

The Observer – 18/06/2007

June 21, 2007 0 comment

France

Nejat Society Letter to Ms Ségolène Royal

Ms Ségolène Royal

French Socialist Party

Paris, Republic of France

Dear Ms Royal

Primarily the Nejat Society would like to wish you every success in your tasks and duties for the future of France.

Nejat Society consists of those former members of the Mojahedin-é Khalq Organization (MKO) of Iran who have managed to escape from boundaries of the Organization and feel obliged to help their former colleagues to be rescued from the confinement of a destructive cult.

As you may already be aware, the MKO under the leadership of Mas’ud and Maryam Rajavi actively took part in the French presidential campaign in the favour of the Socialist Party and your candidacy. This of course by no means has anything to do with the ideology or internal and international policies of the French Socialist Party. MKO has proven to be a terrorist cult with extreme opportunistic attitude toward political affairs.

The sheer fact is that Maryam Rajavi has a trial to face in a near future for fraud and terrorism in a French court of justice. This of course has put the organization in an awkward position. The organization thinks that if the ruling party in France is changed, this trial and its heavy file would be over shadowed.

It is worth mentioning that just after the 1979 revolution in Iran, MKO and its leader Mas’ud Rajavi fully supported the new ruling system just to gain time to get prepared to turn against it and assassinate many officials in various ranks.

We as the prime victims of a destructive cult would like to urge you to take decisive measures to counter the organization’s terrorist acts and the mind manipulation practiced over its members. Please do not let them to misuse you and your party’s reputation for their unjust goals.

Nejat Society

12 May 2007

www.nejatngo.org

Tel.Fax: Tehran,8896103114395/679

E.MAIL:info@nejatngo.org

nejat_en@nejatngo.org

June 10, 2007 0 comment

France

MKO’s Days in France Might Be Counted

Taking a clear political stand in support of Ségolène Royal, MKO looked with dismay a resounding win by Right Wing UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. It does not necessarily mean that Ms. Royal intended to sacrifice the people’s interests and political concerns to meet the demands of a proscribed group long leeching onto France.

Of the diplomatic controversies that have clouded French-Iranian relations, which Nicolas Sarkozy has on his political agenda to improve, was the issue of MKO. Darius Kadivar, a freelance journalist, in an article released in persianmirror makes a short reference to the issue and is of the opinion that the days of MKO in France may well be counted with Sarkozy who is anti-communist.

Another issue of controversy between Iran and France has been the Armed Opposition Organization of the Peoples Mujahedin Khalge known as the MKO which is labeled as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US. The Para Military organization founded by Massoud Rajavi and led by its self elected wife Maryam Rajavi combines Marxist and Islamist ideologies and has made headlines for the spectacular fanatical actions of its members such as self immolation to protest against the arrests of its leaders. It claims to have given up military actions against the Islamic Regime and seeks respectability amongst European deputies and personalities such as Bernard Lavillier, and controversial excommunicated Bishop Jacques Gaillot. It has however found amongst its staunchest ally the former First Lady Danielle Mitterand, who has often been at odds with her own husband the late French President François Mitterand who favored political ties with Iran whilst selling Arms to both Iran and Iraq during their 8 year war. The days of this organization in France may well be counted with Sarkozy who is anti-communist, with pro-American sympathies and claims to combat terrorism and support Human Rights.

19/05/2007 – Mojahedin.ws

May 21, 2007 0 comment

France

New Charges Added to MKO’s Criminal Case

French prosecutor announced that new charges have been added to the case against MKO and the head of the group Maryam Rajavi.

AFP’s report from Paris on Wednesday indicate that prosecutor general has asked the court to add money laundering and fraud charges to the case, which includes connection with terrorism and saboteur groups.

According to the report, prosecutor has submitted this request to anti-terror court on March 19.

MKO collected public donations in Paris and sent the money to bank accounts abroad, judges say.

On June 17, 2003, French police attacked MKO headquarters in the suburbs of French capital and arrested 164 MKO members including Maryam Rajavi.

The group has been listed as terrorist by the US and EU.

IRNA, April 07, 2007

April 10, 2007 0 comment

France

‘The Association of Criminals’

Mojahedin / National Council of Resistance of Iran – ‘The Association of Criminals’

The judge in France, who is prosecuting Rajavi’s gang for illegal and criminal charges, has rightly called this group”The Association of Criminals”.

This, above all, shows the depth of the judge’s recognition of the nature and behavior of the MKO.

Abulghassem Rezaee, one of 17 members of this association, has given some explanation about the recent decision of the appeals court (to lift some restrictions on MKO), which itself displays the critical situation of MKO in France.

Rezaee, as the one who is fully aware of the case’s details, while trying not to reveal much, admits that:

1. MKO’s case is still open. He says that the case is practically open and that regime (read”French Judiciary”) will try again to keep it open.

2.”Our lawyers had asked the judge to lift the restrictions and bans. As we expected, the judge refused and we took it to appeals court”. So, the judge of the case is opposed to lifting these restrictions.

3.”Chief of France’s Counter-Espionage Office said it was right to destroy a terrorist organization.”This means that France’s intelligence services are wholly against the Rajavi’s band, which is the result of 25 years experience of countering the deceptions of MKO.

4.”Those countries whose security services investigated MKO supporters know that they can do nothing; they can’t stop our political works and resistance against theocracy in Iran. During past 3 years, we have won all courts we were taken to.”This means that Europe’s security officials are opposed to MKO’s illegal activities and that Mojahedin have been forced to accept to only do political works and avoid from violence.

Despite these confessions, MKO’s propaganda system tries to boost the morale of its desperate members by relating the decision of appeals court to the case itself; they stupidly claim:

“The case was based on the claim that some people in France are doing terrorist activities. They had even coined the name of”The Association of Criminals”for the MKO. With baseless charges, they created some restrictions for the officials of resistance to cut their relations with activities. When the court cancels the ruling it means that whole charges were baseless.”

This claim is so invalid that Rezaee himself admits to the hatred of European officials for the MKO and says:

“Informed sources quoted a European government saying that when MKO is bombed, more than half of them will go to Iran and others will disperse; then we can deal with remaining small groups”.

In addition, Rezaee refers to the measures taken by the US and Europeans after 9/11 and that how, in line with fighting terrorism, they controlled the group. However, MKO still tries to attribute all this global opposition (to Rajavi’s group) to Iran!

July 16, 2006 0 comment

France

The Guest Who Rebukes the Host

A country’s judiciary system, before anything, administrates justice and follows a guiding principle that never doubts about the brought charges when it is to deliberate and come to a verdict. A judge’s judgment is done according to the law and he is cautious about his judgment because he is well aware of the evil that comes from judging wrongly. A judge’s verdict is delivered based on proven charges and the accused is acquitted of the charges only if the court is convinced according to sound evidences. Of course, a judge has to be more cautious when working on a dossier that instigates an official inquiry into terrorist charges threatening a country’s social security.

On 16 June 2003 the French best-known anti-terrorist judge Jean Louis Bruguiere and his team, following a 14 hours interrogation that had started at 15.30 hour local time on 16 June 2003, issued a detention order accusing the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political umbrella group dominated by the MKO, blacklisted as a terrorist group by the US, the EU, and other countries, of "terrorist activities, association with a terrorist organization and financing terrorist operations". Shortly after 6 am on 17 June 2003 more than 1200 police and gendarmerie forces launched the largest police operation in three decades to raid 13 MKO-run offices in Val-d’Oise and Yvelines, two departments of the Parisian region. The main target was the office of MKO at Auvers-sur-Oise and Police arrested 164 suspected Mojahedin cadres as well as Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s self-nominated president-elect.

The French Government said it was trying to stop the group from expanding its operations in France. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, said the order to crackdown on the MKO was decided following two years of investigations on the network. He said MKO "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq. We cannot accept that". The head of France’s domestic intelligence service, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, said the group was "transforming its Val d’Oise centre [near Paris] … into an international terrorist base".

The Police discovered and confiscated more than a million US dollars in 100 banknotes, 100.000 Euros, sophisticated communication equipments and computers. French Interior Ministry sources said they had confiscated more than 8 millions dollars in cash found in various offices of the MKO as well in the houses of its high-ranking officials throughout France.

In the next few days, people in some European cities were shocked to witness one of the most appalling potentialities of Mojahedin; a number of the group’s insiders immolated themselves in public to protest Maryam Rajavi’s arrest. Reportedly, more than ten Mojahedin sympathizers set themselves alight in three days in Paris, Berne, Rome, London, and Ottawa. The human tragedy ended with two deaths; two women, Sediqeh Mojaveri, 40, and Neda Hassani, 19, died because of the self-immolation injuries.

After three years, on 16 June 2006, MKO announced in a statement that the Paris Appeals Court had dropped all restrictions imposed on 16 active members of the Iranian terrorist group including Maryam Rajavi, following the raid of June 17, 2003. According to the Appeals Court ruling, the 16 members were free to communicate with each other and to travel abroad, nothing more. The French court ruling gave MKO an opportunity to fuel its propaganda machine. While the file is open and MKO is not acquitted of the previous charges, the group has initiated rebuking the French judiciary.

At a press conference held in Paris on June 20, 2006, several members, along with a few of its French advocates, reproved French judiciary for having made a transparent mistake three years ago. Bernard Dartevelle, a French jurist present at the press conference, said "This shows that all their charges against the Resistance were completely baseless. The terrorist charge against the Mojahedin has been undermined. On the international level, the ruling is a slap on the face of all those who have designated the PMOI in the terror list". Mr. Dartevelle’ statement, meant to slap MKO on the back, is more a slap in the face of international opinion.

Abolqasem Rezaii, deputy head of the NCRI’s secretariat, one of the 16, told the press conference that the “recent court ruling represented a total rejection of all terrorist and money laundering charges against the Iranian Resistance”. The French judiciary has exonerated none of the MKO’s previous terrorist and money laundering charges and the file is fully open. Now, after three years, Rezaii claims “I told them [investigators] from day one that I was in charge of the Resistance’s finances and that they could ask all their questions from me, but they did not speak to me even once… now that the falsity of the case and all those charges are proven, why do they not close the file?”. No doubt, he has been investigated on the charges more than once but proved to be non-cooperative or misguiding, otherwise, the court would rule return of more than $8 million to the NCRI whose sources are not still transparent. Moreover, the court has banned the group to be indulged in fundraising activities inside the Franc’s soil.

MKO must be thankful of the French judiciary and people whom they are reproaching. It is MKO’s habitual to claim the whole loaf if you favor them a morsel. Wise people leash hounds with rabies to save others in the vicinity. It is a heavy mutual duty on the shoulders of French’s judiciary and security systems to be watchful of a sect, blacklisted as a terrorist organization, to safeguard the social peace and nation’s well-being when it is settled next door. MKO is capable of jeopardizing peace and tranquility of people as it did when in Iran.

– The quotes are all from the NCRI website Dated26 June 2006.

By A. Afshar, 28 June 2006

July 3, 2006 0 comment

France

Paris Appeals Court’s Ruling on MKO

A French appeals court on Friday eased restrictions on an Iranian exiled opposition group with links to an armed guerrilla movement which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States.

The appeals court ruled that 18 members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which seeks to oust Iran’s clerical leaders and is the political wing of the People’s Mujahideen, had the right to travel abroad, go to the organisation’s headquarters outside Paris, and communicate with each other.

But it upheld a ban that prevents them from owning weapons, collecting funds from the public for organisations linked to their cause, or having contacts with donors.

Eleven members of the NCRI, including its leader, Maryam Rajavi, were imprisoned in 2003 on a charge of "association with criminals in connection with a terrorist enterprise" but were released at the order of the Paris appeals court.

More than 1 million dollars were confiscated from MKO headquarters at that time.

Several supporters of the group had set themselves on fire in Paris, London, Rome and Berne to protest the arrest of Rajavi, the wife of the Mujahideen main figure Massoud Rajavi.

Formed in the 1960s, the Mujahideen fled to Iraq in the 1980s after falling foul of Islamic leaders after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Reuters, June 18, 2006

June 21, 2006 0 comment

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