France Will Drop Charges Against Iranian Dissidents

PARIS — The French authorities are dropping a terrorism investigation into 24 members of an Iranian dissident group for lack of evidence, court documents show, nearly eight years after a sensational raid on the organization’s headquarters amid charges that the group was planning attacks on targets in Europe.

Marc Trévidic and Edmond Brunaud, the judges investigating the case for the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance, a superior court, found that there were no grounds for proceeding with indictments for terrorism or terrorism-related finance, according to the documents, which were dated Wednesday.

The inquiry grew out of one of France’s largest anti-terrorist operations, when 1,300 police officers and intelligence officials descended on June 17, 2003, on the offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, which wants to overthrow the Tehran government.

Acting under Nicolas Sarkozy when he was interior minister, the police arrested 120 people at the group’s headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris.

According to classified French documents that were leaked in 2003, the People’s Mujahedeen had been plotting to attack Iranian embassies and assassinate former members working with Iranian intelligence services in Europe.

The People’s Mujahedeen maintains that the French state carried out the raid in the hope of winning friends in the Iranian government.

Maryam Rajavi, head of the group’s political arm, said Thursday in a telephone interview, “This ruling demonstrates the Iranian people’s right to struggle for their freedom.”