A leading Iranian opposition group had planned attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe and elsewhere, a top French intelligence chief said Wednesday, explaining massive raids on the organization a day earlier.
The head of the DST, France's counterintelligence agency, spoke at a news conference after a day of protests outside DST headquarters by scores of Mujahedeen Khalq members -- three of whom set themselves afire. All three were severely burned.
Two other protesters set themselves afire, in London and Bern, Switzerland.
PHOTO: AFP
No deaths were reported.
Paris Police Chief Jean-Paul Proust later banned demonstrations by the group "given these suicidal acts," and said protesters would be arrested.
The Mujahedeen Khalq "was preparing to commit attacks outside Iran, including in Europe," said DST chief Pierre de Bousquet de Florian. However, Iranian diplomatic missions in France, where the group is headquartered, were not among sites targeted, he said.
The group, which opposes the clerical government in Tehran, is listed as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU. However, it had few problems during most of its time in France, where the group located shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Of the 159 people detained in the Tuesday raids, only 26 were still being held for questioning by the DST. However, they included a highly symbolic figure, Maryam Rajavi, a leader and wife of Mujahedeen Khalq chief Massoud Rajavi.
Police seized between US$8 million and US$9 million in cash during the raids on 13 sites, Bousquet de Florian said, adding that the money -- all in cash -- had not been fully counted.
The main site raided was a walled compound in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, that for years has served as headquarters for the Mujahedeen Khalq.
"They were making Auvers-Sur-Oise an operational center for terrorism," the DST chief said.
An official of the National Council of Resistance, the group's so-called parliament-in-exile, denied the charges leveled by the DST chief.
"The Iranian resistance, in the last 22 years, has always functioned within the realm of the law of the host country," said Shahin Gobodi by telephone. "This is only an excuse to cover up the French dirty deal with the mullahs," he said, referring to Iran's clerical leaders.
The counterintelligence chief linked the terror plans to the Mujahedeen Khalq's setback in Iraq -- where it maintained a well-equipped army to mount attacks on neighboring Iran.
The US-led war in Iraq "deprived [the Mujahedeen Khalq] of its Baghdad headquarters" and of financing by the regime of Saddam Hussein, Bousquet de Florian said. US forces in Iraq disarmed the Mujahedeen Khalq forces in May.
The DST chief said the Mujahedeen Khalq functions like a sect, with Maryam and Massoud Rajavi veritable cult figures.
Two women doused themselves with a flammable liquid and set themselves afire in separate incidents near DST headquarters Wednesday. Later, a man did the same.
According to police headquarters, all three were in serious condition.
In Bern, Switzerland, a man in his 50s tried to set himself afire in front of the French Embassy, but was stopped by police. An Iranian woman set herself afire outside the French Embassy in London, a day after a man tried to burn himself to death in the same place.
The crackdown on the Mujahedeen came as pro-democracy protesters in Iran put pressure on the clerical government with demonstrations calling for greater freedom.
Iranian President Mohammed Khatami praised the French action, and said the US should follow suit.
"It is natural that we want all the people who have been involved in terrorist acts," he said in an apparent reference that Tehran would like their extradition. Khatami said "there are documents and evidence against them."
Tuesday's raids by 1,300 police were carried out based on intelligence indicating the group's "dangerous and illegal" activities, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Wednesday.
"Our services had specific information on the development of activities of this organization," Cope said.
The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group had initially supported the revolution, but had a bitter fallout, in part, over the issue of the supremacy of religious leaders.
The group has offices in several European and US cities.
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