Iranian Resistance Leader, Supporters Urge Change in French Policy Following Dismissal of Charges

PARIS, Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An event was held in central Paris on Wednesday to discuss the context and consequences of last week's dismissal of eleven-year-old charges against nine activists of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, reports Iran News Update. Prominent French lawyers were in attendance, as well as dignitaries and former government officials and journalists.

Speakers spoke out against the policies of the French government in 2003, when it raided the NCRI headquarters and the homes of its activists, arresting 164. Journalists have since revealed that the raid was promised in advance to the Iranian regime by French officials seeking stronger commercial ties with Tehran.                                                                                     

Prominent attorneys William Bourdon, and Patrick Baudouin levied the same charges against former French officials, while also praising last week's judicial decision as the final chapter in a long legal saga that has pitted the NCRI against false accusations of terrorism and money laundering.

Attorneys and dignitaries who spoke at Wednesday's event pointed out that the across-the-board dismissal of charges not only proved the NCRI's peaceful intentions; it also explicitly recognized the organization's right to resist repressive governance in its native Iran.

Speaking to assembled supporters and journalists, NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi referred to the court's decision as a "victory for justice and resistance," and a sign that the world community is no longer willing to tolerate tyranny and extremism, as France had done when it contributed to a campaign of demonizing the political resistance against the theocratic regime in Tehran.

Rajavi described such Western cooperation with Iran as "paving the way for the demon of fundamentalism," not just in the form of the clerical regime itself, but also in the form of militant groups like the ISIS, which thrive on the sectarian divisions that Iran has long pursued in the region.

Rajavi went on to emphasize that the main constituent organization of the NCRI, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), represents the tolerant and moderate Muslim antithesis to the clerical dictatorship of the current Iranian power structure. She called upon the current government to reverse past injustices, as by taking action to help PMOI members who are stranded in Iraq, under attack by the Tehran-supported Shiite government, and waiting for relocation to someplace safe.

"It is time for France to show firmness and dismantle the Iranian regime's network of agents and [the Revolutionary Guards'] front companies and organizations in France and Europe," Rajavi said.

SOURCE Iran News Update

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