Stop Fundamentalism, June 16, 2006 – The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) announced in a statement today that the Paris Appeals Court has dropped all restrictions against Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance based in France.
The orders were imposed on 16 active members of the Iranian Resistance including Mrs. Rajavi, following the raid of June 17, 2003 on the headquarters of the movement near Paris.
About 170 members and supporters of the NCRI were arrested after the clampdown which involved 1300 French police members on a dozen locations belonging to Iranian refugees.
The operation was unprecedented in the history of France for the past 35 years, due to the number of police officers involved, and received enormous media coverage at the time. All those arrested were released shortly after but sixteen were still under restrictive orders after 3 years.
The rulings came despite the fact that the investigative magistrates were insisting on continuing the restrictions.
Nevertheless, the ruling was welcomed by the Iranian Resistance as it called it a “blow to the smear campaign against the Iranian Resistance to†make way to “appease the mullahs’ regime.â€
At press conference held today at Aver-sur-Oise where the offices of NCRI is based, Mrs. Rajavi, welcomed the verdict and said, “The case was conceived at the request of the fascist theocracy ruling Iran and was solely based on lies churned out by this regime. With the latest ruling, the time has come for this dossier to be brought to an end and all proceedings halted.â€
“The shameful June 17, 2003 raid was a futile attempt to destroy Iran’s democratic opposition and aid the Iranian regime. If resistance against religious despotism for freedom is considered a crime, then I and all members and supporters of the Resistance proudly accept this crime. We are determined to establish democracy in Iran. Nothing can save the clerical regime from its inevitable fall and nothing can stop the Iranian nation from attaining freedom and democracy. In Iran today the cry is freedom. The day when the blazing flames of freedom would burn down the mullahs’ oppression in our fettered homeland is not far,†Mrs. Rajavi added.
Condemning the West’s appeasement policy towards the mullahs, the President-elect of the Resistance emphasized, “Continuation of this policy is morally wrong and politically a fatal blunder. The time has come for France to reconsider its policies.â€
