While all the terrorism charges were dropped, charges of financial violations were kept against nine members of the group.
French officials said the terrorism charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
Some in France saw the decision on the terrorism charges as a policy change indicating that the French government was turning friendlier toward the group. But others argued that he fact that the French kept the charges on the books for eight years in the absence of evidence indicated considerable hostility toward the group.
William Bourdon, the lawyer for the group, said he believed the decision was also based to some extent on recognition of a “legitimate right to resist tyranny.” But no French officials endorsed that view.
In 2003, French counterintelligence suspected the group’s members in France of plotting attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions and assassinations of Iranian agents in Europe. The 2003 police raid on the group’s European headquarters near Paris uncovered $9 million in cash and pulled in as many as 170 people. The bulk of the detainees, however, were released soon after questioning.
Among those arrested was Maryam Rajavi, the co-leader leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq. Her detention instigated protests in several European countries, in which six people were injured and two people died after setting themselves on fire.
She was freed on $93,000 bail. It is not apparent whether she has been cleared of all charges, or faces some of the financial accusations. None of those cleared or still facing charges were named in news reports.
Rajavi said the announcement of the dropped charges “nullifies and devastates a decade-long investment, demon-ization and disinformation campaign by the clerical regime [of Iran], its agents and witnesses against the Iranian resistance and its symbols.”
The European Union concluded the Mojahedin was no longer a terrorist organization and removed the group from its list in 2009. The United States and Canada still list the group as a terrorist organization. Under court order, the US State Department is reviewing its classification and is expected to issue a decision this summer.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi Sunday denounced the French dropping of the charges and the delisting of the organization by the EU. “The reason these countries are doing this is because they are terrorists themselves,” he said.
The bulk of the members of the group are still living at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. But the Iraqi government wants Ashraf closed and the Mojahedin-e Khalq members dispersed to other countries. So far, no country has been willing to take any significant numbers.
A European parliament delegation that visited Iraq April 25 to 29 urged its counterparts to reconsider and help the Mojahedin resettle in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States in order to prevent future violence against the group.
“We’ve had so many threats from the Iraqi government … of what could happen if Ashraf is not cleared by the end of this year,” said Scottish conservative Struan Stevenson of the European Parliament. “Having seen the massacre that took place on April 8, I can only anticipate that if we do not resolve the situation … there will be a Srebrenica-style massacre.”
The Srebrenica massacre refers to the mass killing of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb paramilitary in Srebrenica in 1995. In the April 8 battle at Camp Ashraf between Iraqi troops and group members, 34 members of the 3,400 Mojahedin-e Khalq members living there were killed.
