Family members of the Iranian victims of terrorism in a statement issued on Monday blasted France for its support for the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), and asked for the trial of the group leaders in a tribunal.
"In addition to condemning the western countries’ support for the MKO which indicates their double-standard and selective approach towards terrorism, the families of terror victims in Iran urge these countries and the international organizations to work on the trial of the MKO leaders for killing thousands of innocent people," the statement said.
The statement was issued at the end of a gathering in front of the French embassy in Tehran by a large crowd who protested at France’s support for the terrorist MKO.
The statement also called on the French government and other European countries to implement the UN Security Council’s resolution 1373 in which any financial and human support for terrorists is recognized as crime.
The family members of the terror victims also in their statement asked the European governments if providing support for the terrorist MKO is not an obvious violation of the resolution 1373.
The gathering took place on the anniversary of a bomb attack on the central office of Jomhuri Eslami party (Islamic Republic party) in Tehran in 1981 by the terrorist MKO in which 72 of party members, including senior Iranian political and religious officials, were martyred.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
Some other members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials are currently living in France.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of armed struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December 2009 and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.