Police order last-minute ban of Iranian opposition rally in Paris

PARIS, June 19 - Paris-based Iranian opposition group NCRI said on Friday that the city's police had banned a rally it was due to hold on Saturday and that it had appealed what it said was a "bogus" decision.

The sudden ruling came hours after a call between France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi, where they discussed the latest developments to end the Iran war. The French foreign ministry rejected an allegation by the Iranian group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, that the ban was linked to the call.

"This allegation is false. The (Iranian) minister did not mention this protest or request its cancellation," the ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The Paris police were not immediately available for comment on the NCRI statement, which did not say what reason had been given for the ban.

"After business hours on the evening of Thursday, June 18, the Paris Police Prefecture banned the planned demonstration of 100,000 people against the wave of political executions in Iran, scheduled for Saturday, June 20, citing bogus reasons," it said.

Organisers had coordinated with police for two months and followed all the legal procedures, the statement said.

GROUP HAD FACED BAN IN 2023

The Paris-based NCRI, political arm of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran, has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years. They have been attended by thousands of people, including high-profile former U.S., European and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic.

It is unclear how much support it has in Iran, but along with its bitter rival, the monarchists backing Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the toppled shah, it is one of the few opposition groups able to rally supporters.

Tehran, which has banned the NCRI in Iran, has long called for a crackdown on its activities in Paris, Washington and the Saudi capital Riyadh. The group, whose sources of funding and support are unclear, is regularly lambasted by Iranian state media.

NCRI said it was appealing the decision to ban its rally.

In 2023, a court reversed an initial decision by the French capital's police to ban an NCRI rally. At the time the police had said the ban had been motivated by security concerns.

That ban came just days after the release of an Iranian diplomat convicted of masterminding a plot to bomb the group in 2018 during a gathering on the outskirts of Paris.

Speaking earlier on French TV, Barrot said Iran's population had been the biggest victims of the war and that the killing of Iranians during protests in January should not be forgotten.

He said France was setting up a platform to allow artists in exile to fully express themselves independent of any political considerations.

"Iran is, above all, a great people, and we distinguish between the Iranian regime and Iran itself," he said. REUTERS