France: The head of the political wing of the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq, Ms Maraym Rajavi, and 10 followers were remanded in custody yesterday by a French judge ahead of an investigation into alleged links with terrorism.
Six other members of the organisation were freed pending the results of the investigation. Mujahedin spokesmen reject the charge.
The 11 were incarcerated after a two-hour appearance before a special court. Her lawyer said the decision would be appealed.
Security around the court was tight in case supporters of the group attempted to set themselves alight in spite of a ban on self-immolations. At least 40 Iranians are in a third day of a hunger strike and say they will persist until she and the others are released.
Last week French security police raided the Mujahedin's headquarters in the Paris suburb of Avers-sur-Oise, claiming that the group, the sole armed resistance movement opposing the clerical regime in Tehran, was planning to make France a centre for terrorist operations.
Following the US war on Iraq, the Mujahedin's military wing, based on the Iraq-Iran border, was disarmed by the US military. Ms Rajavi is married to the commander of the military wing, Mr Masoud Rajavi.
During the 1970s Ms Rajavi, a leader of the Iranian student movement seeking the overthrow of the shah, joined the Mujahedin Khalq, the "People's Holy Warriors", a leftist Islamist group.
Following the 1979 revolution, she ran for parliament in the Islamic Republic at a time when the conservative clerical regime was pursuing a policy of coexistence with the Mujahedin.
But this ended in 1981 when its members were killed, imprisoned and driven into exile.
Ms Rajavi has been living in France for 22 years.
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