![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2006\/06\/MR-Auvers5-16June.jpg\" "\\"MR-Auvers5-16June\\"")
The Associated Press, Paris – The Paris Appeals Court on Friday lifted restrictions placed on 17 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, including one of its leaders, three years after they were arrested in a huge sweep on suspicion of having links to terrorism.<\/p>\n
The court lifted a series of measures, including one that forbids the suspects from leaving French territory and another that forbids them from meeting with one another.<\/p>\n
The 17 are members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, the largest exiled Iranian opposition group, and include co-leader Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Iraq-based Massoud Rajavi.<\/p>\n
They were among nearly 170 people arrested in a massive sweep on June 17, 2003, in which police seized computers and more than US$1 million as part of an investigation into terrorism links.<\/p>\n
The 17 were then placed under investigation for alleged terrorism financing and criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise. The investigation is continuing.<\/p>\n
The arrests set off dramatic protests – including two self-immolations. Six others were injured after setting themselves on fire. Some other supporters went on hunger strikes.<\/p>\n
The group insists it is a peaceful umbrella movement of exiled Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic and calls itself the National Council of Resistance of Iran, based in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris.<\/p>\n
The Mujahedeen Khalq, its main arm, fought as guerrillas against the shah of Iran, toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, and briefly worked with the clerical regime until a split. The group had a militia in Iraq but it was disarmed by the United States following the 2003 invasion.<\/p>\n
“There is nothing in the files that allow us to talk of acts of terrorism … neither in Europe nor in France,” lawyer Patrick Baudouin said Friday.<\/p>\n
The Mujahedeen have vigorously denied the French accusations, calling the arrests a “dirty deal” between Tehran and Paris meant to improve France’s standing with the clerical regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Associated Press, Paris – The Paris Appeals Court on Friday lifted restrictions placed on 17 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, including one of its leaders, three years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran-resistance"],"yoast_head":"\n