165 Detained in France in Operation against Iranian Terrorist Group

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 18, 2003

165 Detained in France in Operation against Iranian Terrorist Group

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At least 165 people were detained ina Paris police raid against the People's Mujahadeen, a main Iranian opposition group listed by the United States and the European Union as terrorist organization, the French authorities announced Tuesday.

The operation began in and near Paris on Tuesday at the requestof French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, said the police.

A box containing about one million US dollars was found in one of the locations stormed by the police and many computers were detained and being decrypted for more information, according to France Info, a news radio in France.

More than 1,200 policemen and an anti-terrorist squad joined the operation, which was launched after three years of investigation. It was described as "huge" and "the most important in 30 years" by the French authorities.

The People's Mujahadeen was founded in 1965 on a mixture of Islamic and Marxist doctrine and participated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

It is led by Massoud Radjavi, whose wife Maryam, nominated by the movement as "future president of Iran," was also detained in Tuesday's operation.

Falling out of favor with the Iranian regime, Radjavi sought refuge in France in 1981. Since the normalization of relations between Paris and Teheran, he went to Iraq in 1986 and launched a military branch, the so-called national liberation army of Iran (ALNI).

Half of its 10,000 to 15,000 combatans are women. It has bases in Iraq and has claimed responsibility for several operations in Iran.

Its headquarters in Europe is in Auvers-sur-Oise, on the outskirts of Paris. The location has become the "international center, the post of command of the movement since the American intervention on Iraq," according to the French Interior Ministry.

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