Maryam Rajavi: Justice prevailed over the policy of appeasement

Speech to a conferece in Paris after the ruling of the French Investigative Magistrate

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Justice has finally defeated the policy of appeasement and conciliation. The investigative magistrate dismissed the charges of terrorism. Once again, the legitimacy of the Iranian Resistance for freedom was confirmed.

After ten years, today the French Judiciary has not only acknowledges that the charge of terrorism is null and void, but also has admitted that it was groundless from the beginning.

I would like to thank all of our lawyers for their efforts, especially Mr. Leclerc, Mr. Bourdon, Mr. Baudouin, Mr. Levy, Mr. Stasi, Me Senyk, Mr. Dartevelle, Mr. Serres, Ms. Barré, Ms. Moucarzel and Mr. Champotier.

The French Judiciary also recognized that the charge was based solely on the inclusion of the PMOI on the EU blacklist. Interestingly, they later tried to justify maintaining the PMOI on the blacklist based on this same dossier. But they failed.
It is common knowledge that the PMOI blacklisting was made at the behest of the mullahs’ regime. In addition, the European Court of Justice has shown that this charge was baseless. We said from the beginning that this dossier is empty and it only sought was to meet the demands of the clerical regime to destroy the Iranian resistance.
This ruling is now a total defeat for all them. In reality, the Iranian Resistance is righteous and has deep roots in Iranian society.

They levied many accusations and put enormous pressure on the Iranian Resistance.
They even denied us the right to see and talk to each other under the guise of being under investigation.
But we did not give up and insisted on our rights. Along this path, we received support from a multitude of defenders of human rights, political figures and the public, including the support of Mrs. Mitterrand, who came to the headquarters of the NCRI, the day after the raid on June 17, 2003, to say that during the French Resistance, she and François Mitterrand, had also been accused of terrorism.

Now, those who promised to attack the offices of the NCRI in Auvers-sur-Oise in Tehran, must answer today. Jean-Louis Bruguière who ordered the raid on June 17, 2003, must explain why he misused the French Judiciary to mollify the mullahs.

Those who invoked the pretext of urgent threat of terrorism to act so hastily, but were really trying to put a lid on deal making with the clerical regime must now answer what happened to the threat of terrorism? Who was the source of these accusations other than the Iranian regime?
Those who directed a barrage of charges against the Resistance to justify collaborating with the mullahs must now answer to the people of Iran and France. Why did they pursue the policy of demonizing Iran’s democratic opposition to serve the interests of the mullahs?
I accuse them of collaborating with the Iranian regime in suppressing the Iranian people’s Resistance movement.
I accuse them of sacrificing France’s values and honor.

And I accuse all those who remained silent in the face of this injustice.
Perhaps they will never be tried in court of justice for their actions. Nevertheless conscientious human beings and the people of France have already passed judgment on them.

And today, they must be held accountable before the court of public opinion.

How can they justify their collusion with a repressive regime?
How can they justify crackdown on a legitimate resistance which has sought nothing except freedom of expression, free elections and people’s sovereignty? A resistance whose only crime is that it has said no to dictatorship. No to Khomeini, no to Khamenei and no to Ahmadinejad; just like the people of Libya are saying today: No to Qaddafi.
From day one, our resistance movement, representing an oppressed people, has said that it cannot accept the principle of the velayat-e faqih (absolute supremacy of clerical rule) in place of people’s sovereignty.
The principle of the velayat-e faqih means that governance belongs to the mullahs who introduce themselves as the vicegerent of God on Earth!

What have we been saying other than freedom, equality and justice?

Unfortunately, millions of euros of French taxpayers were spent on this dossier in the service of the mullahs.
This was in addition to the personal property, passports, identification cards, computers, vehicles and the money that belonged to a resistance, which sought nothing but the freedom of its people.

And the most important were the lives that were lost and those who were expelled or sent to internal exile.
Agents of Tehran were heard as witnesses and the mullahs included false information in the dossier. And so it is that in the twenty-first century, interrogation became inquisition.

It is with this terrorism label and fabricated dossier that the mullahs execute families of the Mojahedin in Ashraf, like they executed Ali Saremi, Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad HajAgha’i in recent months. Similarly, they refused to treat political prisoners suffering from cancer so that they would die in pain, as was the case with Mohsen Dogmechi, who was jailed for a total of nine years and died last March.

It is because of this label that on April 8, Maleki attacked Ashraf and its defenseless residents, running over 22 people with armored vehicles, murdering 35 and shooting 225 others. As Wikileaks documents have revealed, since March 2009, acting at the behest of the mullahs, Maleki wanted to convince Americans to relocate the residents of Ashraf in Iraq. Is this the prelude to another massacre?

Today, my specific request from President Sarkozy, who has courageously taken the initiative in Libya, is quite clear and simple. It is of course not a request to bomb specific targets or to be given money or arms.
No, I only request that he takes an initiative in the framework of a humanitarian undertaking to protect the defenseless residents of Camp Ashraf.

It would only suffice if the French President were to take this humanitarian and legal demand to the United Nations and raise it at the Security Council.
I just want to stop the massacre and repression of Ashraf residents who have suffered greatly from the terrorism label and the fabricated dossier.

Certainly in the framework of human rights and humanitarian law, France has the capacity to defend the solution presented by the European Parliament announced in Strasbourg by Struan Stevenson on May 9. That proposal was sent to the French President as well.

On 7 May, the Socialist Party took an admirable position vis-à-vis Ashraf and I express my gratitude for that stance.
Previously, majorities in France’s National Assembly and the Senate, as well as 5,000 French mayors stated their outstanding and unforgettable positions regarding the protection of Ashraf.

Let me pay tribute to the memory of Abbe Pierre, the great defender of Ashraf. I also thank the French people, personalities, parties and the French National Assembly and the Senate
I asked the Government of France to act quickly in the framework of a humanitarian initiative to protect Iran’s freedom fighters in Camp Ashraf.

I believe this is what the Iranian people also want of France to stand with them and not with the blood-drenched mullahs.

We do not want to linger in the past, but want to build the future.

Thank you