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| Couple charged with planning attack on 'cult-like' Iran group in France | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Belgian authorities have arrested a married couple who are accused of preparing a bomb attack during a packed rally held by an Iranian opposition group in France last weekend. | |
| As well as Iranian exiles, there were numerous American speakers at the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) event, including Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s attorney. | |
| The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said on Monday that the couple, Belgian citizens of Iranian heritage in their 30s, were charged with “attempt at terrorist murder and preparing a terrorist crime” against the Iranian opposition group in Villepinte, near Paris. | |
| The office said investigators who detained the couple and searched their car found about half a kilogram of TATP explosives and a detonator. A few grams of TATP can cause bodily damage. Half a kilogram would be enough to cause a sizeable explosion and, in a crowd of 25,000, considerable bloodshed and widespread panic. | The office said investigators who detained the couple and searched their car found about half a kilogram of TATP explosives and a detonator. A few grams of TATP can cause bodily damage. Half a kilogram would be enough to cause a sizeable explosion and, in a crowd of 25,000, considerable bloodshed and widespread panic. |
| Police also raided five homes over the weekend but did not elaborate on the results. | |
| The federal prosecutor’s office said that as well as the Belgian security services, the DGSI French internal intelligence service and German judicial authorities were instrumental “in avoiding a terror attack on French soil”. | The federal prosecutor’s office said that as well as the Belgian security services, the DGSI French internal intelligence service and German judicial authorities were instrumental “in avoiding a terror attack on French soil”. |
| Prosecutors said three suspected accomplices were detained in France. An Iranian diplomat based in Vienna was detained in Germany. | Prosecutors said three suspected accomplices were detained in France. An Iranian diplomat based in Vienna was detained in Germany. |
| The MeK is an exiled Iranian opposition group detested by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which refers to them as “hypocrites”. The formerly armed group had been on the EU and US terrorism lists before being delisted from both. The rally, called Free Iran 2018 – The Alternative, sought to plant the seeds for regime change in Iran. | |
| Trump recently appointed John Bolton, who has addressed an MeK rally in the past, as his national security adviser and Giuliani is a regular MeK headliner, which could help strengthen the group’s bid for US backing. | |
| The MeK is still widely viewed as a Marxist-Islamist cult built around the personality of its leader, Maryam Rajavi. | |
| France | France |
| Europe | Europe |
| Iran | Iran |
| Belgium | Belgium |
| news | news |
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