PARIS, 18 June 2003 — Masked and heavily armed French police yesterday raided the offices of an Iranian opposition group accused of links to terrorism, rounding up 165 members and seizing $1.3 million, the government said.
The interior minister said the raids were motivated by evidence that France was becoming a major operations center for the group, whose Iraq-based military wing was disarmed by US forces.
On the orders of France’s leading anti-terrorism judge, some 1,300 police poured into the streets and blew down doors of offices of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran in a vast sweep early yesterday of sites north and west of Paris.
Police also seized large quantities of computer material and sophisticated transmission systems, an investigator said.
Among those detained were Maryam Rajavi, wife of Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, who is based in Iraq, and Saleh Rajavi, Massoud’s brother, judicial officials said.
The arrests dealt a fresh blow to the movement, also known as the Mujahedeen Khalq — or People’s Warriors.
The well-armed group had used neighboring Iraq to mount operations against Iran in an effort to topple the Iranian government.
Iran welcomed the raid as a “positive step.” “We are expecting France to treat these people as dangerous terrorists,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in comments carried by the official news agency IRNA.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France had become an increasingly important base for the Mujahedeen, particularly after their setback in Iraq.
