The French government finally put an end to the legal proceedings against an Iranian political group opposed to the Iranian government that began 11 years ago.
After the dismissal of the case, Maitre Henri Leclerc, honorary president of the League of Human Rights, congratulated Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the republic for the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Sometimes justice is slow. On June 17, 2003, no fewer than 1,300 policemen descended on the Iranian People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, in Auvers-sur-Oise, deep in Parisian suburbs.
The police protecting the Mojahedin who were sometimes attacked by supporters of the Iranian Ayatollahs were removed a few minutes before the arrival of police force who paradoxically came to arrest those who were protecting a few minutes earlier.
Judicial dead-end
One hundred and sixty-four people were arrested, but two weeks later, the Court of Appeal of Paris released 11 of them. Most were released the next day, and 24 released a few days later when they were informed of their charges.
In 2005, as accusations of terrorism hit a dead end, the investigation by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere extended to include search for financial crimes.
In 2011, there was nothing left on terrorism charges, and on September 17 the last bits of accusations of embezzlement were also abandoned by the judges Jeanne Duye and Marc Trévidic.
The PMOI were on the terrorist list in 1997 in the United States, and 2001 in the European Union. They were removed in 2009 from the European Union, and in 2012 the United States! Did these states choose to make them terrorists?
There is a temptation to make such conclusion: Dominique de Villepin, Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, wanted to conclude an agreement with the government in Tehran, and thus sacrificed the opponents of the Iranian clerical regime. Following the same argument, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere sought to label them with terrorism charges.
All this is difficult to prove, and we must remember that opponents ‘People’s Mojahedin of Iran’ were not imprisoned for more than a few days. But one can smell a state manipulation, as the PMOI have never committed acts of terrorism in Europe or America. No doubt their spy network in Iran, fully minimized by the regime, is an irritant.
Probably they did kill some in the 80s, in the revolutionary turmoil. But that does not make them terrorists on another continent, and 30 years later. And we know that Judge Trévidic is not one to overlook these kinds of issues.