Report: France Bans Iranian Opposition Rally, Citing Attack Threat

French authorities have banned a planned Iranian opposition rally in Paris, citing the risk of a terrorist attack, Reuters news agency reported on June 19.

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political arm of the Mujahedin-e Khalk (MEK), planned its annual rally on July 1.

In a letter sent to the organizers and seen by Reuters, Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said that, following months of nationwide anti-government protests in Iran, a "tense context" developed posing "very significant security risks" to NCRI gatherings.

Therefore, the group’s annual meeting “cannot be held," Nuñez added.

Shahin Gobadi, a member of the NCRI's Foreign Affairs Committee, condemned the decision, saying: "If French authorities take such a stance, it will represent a brazen disregard for democratic principles, caving in to the ruling religious tyranny’s blackmail and hostage-taking.”

In a statement sent to Reuters, Paris police confirmed they had informed the rally’s organizing committee of the decision to ban the event as it could "generate disturbances to public order due to the geopolitical context."

"Moreover, given the terrorist risk cannot be neglected, the holding of such an event would make its security but also the security of sensitive guests extremely complex," it added.

The ban comes a few weeks after the Islamic Republic released several European citizens from prison, including two French nationals. 

In May, a prisoner exchange deal between Belgium and Iran returned to Tehran Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium for having plotted to bomb a NCRI rally outside Paris in 2018.

This attempted attack “falls into a series of violent and lethal operations in France and Europe, in the form of assassinations and kidnappings of Iranian opposition figures," Nuñez’s letter reads.

"Partner countries have in this regard recently mentioned many planned violent attacks, potentially targeting Iranian opposition figures."

Nunez also said that given the group's rally would attract several hundred foreign dignitaries and MEK members coming from overseas, "securing the event would be particularly complicated."

The Paris police chief said there was also a risk of conflict between the NCRI and rival Iranian opposition groups at the rally.

Thousands of supportive rallies have been held around the world since the eruption of widespread protests in Iran sparked by the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

The unrest has subsided after Iranian security forces clamped down on it, killing more than 520 people and unlawfully detaining over 20,000 others in connection with the protests, activists say. 

Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.