French judges acquit MKO members of terror charges

French prosecutors have closed an 11-year terrorism case against nine members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday that judges had dropped all charges against the nine MKO members who had been arrested in 2003 on charges of embezzlement and terrorism.

The French judicial body did not elaborate on the verdict and the identities of the nine people were not released.

In 2003, over 150 MKO members were arrested in the terrorist group’s headquarters outside the French capital, Paris. The terrorist group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, was also among those detained.

Rajavi and 16 others were accused of planning terrorist operations and terror financing. However, she was later released and some of the charges against her were dropped during the progress of the 11-year probe.

The MKO fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it received the backing of Iraq’s executed dictator, Saddam Hussein, and set up a camp near the Iranian border. The terrorist group also sided with Saddam during Iraq’s eight-year war imposed on the Islamic Republic in 1980-1988.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, 12,000 have fallen victim to the acts of terror carried out by the MKO.