PARIS, 23 June 2003 — Maryam Rajavi, a leader of Iran’s main exiled opposition group, was placed under investigation early yesterday for alleged links to terrorism as part of a large-scale crackdown in France on her movement’s armed wing, the People’s Mujahedeen.
Rajavi was one of 17 Iranian exiles placed under judicial investigation — the first step before possible formal charges — during the night by anti-terrorist judges. Eleven of them, including Rajavi, were also remanded in custody.
Rajavi is the effective head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the exiled political opposition umbrella group dominated by the People’s Mujahadeen, which sees her as a “future president” of Iran. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, the movement’s military chief.
Sympathizers of the People’s Mujahedeen from across Europe reacted to the news with anger. Some 400 supporters gathered outside the movement’s European headquarters in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris yesterday alongside 48 others who have been staging a hunger strike on the pavement for several days.
The hunger-strikers said yesterday afternoon they had decided to drink water after an appeal by Massoud Rajavi’s brother, Saleh Rajavi, a medical doctor who was one of those released early yesterday and who was given a hero’s welcome when he arrived back in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Doctors earlier said one hunger striker, a 38-year-old woman, was in a critical condition.
Maryam Rajavi was detained last week during a crackdown by French police against the People’s Mujahedeen.
Early yesterday, France’s top anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere ordered her placed under judicial investigation for allegedly conspiring with a “terrorist organization”.
A special judge who decides on the question of release or incarceration then ordered her continued detention, and she was taken to prison. Her lawyer Henri Leclerc said Rajavi would appeal against the decision, arguing that the arrests and detention of People’s Mujahedeen members were “out of proportion with a dossier devoid of charges”. The appeal must be heard within 48 hours.
Leclerc said the special judge who ordered her incarceration accused Rajavi of “upsetting the geopolitical balance of the world”.
The NCRI condemned her detention as the product of “a shameful deal” with Tehran’s Islamic government.
The Mujahedeen were equally vigorous in condemning the arrests, which they described as “barbaric” in a statement Sunday, adding that they “welcome any healthy court proceeding to address the unwarranted allegations”.
They also repeated their call for supporters to refrain from self-immolation, following 10 such protests in European cities by Mujahedeen supporters that left one woman dead in France.
The fiery protests were prompted by a massive swoop earlier in the week on addresses near Paris linked to the People’s Mujahedeen, leading to the arrest of 200 people.
Most of them were released. The remaining 17 detained Iranians, including Maryam Rajavi, appeared overnight before Bruguiere and two other judges amid heavy security around Paris’ main criminal court.
