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A French court on Thursday sentenced three men to prison terms ranging from three years with probation to five years in jail for their role in a 2023 attack targeting an Iranian opposition center near Paris, Le Nouvel Observateur reported. While the convicted men were described as small-time criminals, suspicions of the clerical dictatorship’s involvement loomed large over the trial, though no mastermind was identified.

The case, heard in Pontoise, concerned the first of three assaults carried out between May 31 and June 11, 2023, against the offices of the Cima Association in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône (Val-d’Oise), belonging to the supporters of the Iranian Resistance.

A botched attack

According to the court record, two masked men opened fire six times on the building before throwing a Molotov cocktail, then fled in a rideshare vehicle ordered under their own names — a blunder that quickly led to their arrest.

According to the French outlet, the defendants insisted they were unaware of the political nature of their mission. One, identified as “Karim,” said he believed he was hiring others to damage a painting business, not an Iranian opposition center. “Never did I think I was getting involved in something with Iranians and all that,” he told the court.

Another defendant, “Junior,” gave conflicting testimonies, at times denying knowledge of the attack’s purpose and claiming threats had been made against him. His childhood friend “Gianni” admitted to firing shots at the building and later receiving €5,000 in cash, but insisted it was only meant as vandalism.

Sentences and controversy

The court sentenced Karim to five years in prison, Gianni to four years, and Junior to three years, 18 months of which are suspended. A fourth accused, Sofiane, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Lawyers for the Cima Association argued the case should have been handled under terrorism charges, pointing to similar Molotov cocktail attacks against NCRI centers in London, Berlin, and Stockholm between 2022 and 2024.

The wider shadow of Tehran

According to the Le Nouvel Observateur, although the investigation failed to trace the chain of command, the court acknowledged suspicions that Tehran’s intelligence services had outsourced the operation to criminal networks — a method seen before in Europe. For the NCRI and its supporters, the trial underscored ongoing risks faced by Iranian dissidents abroad.

The attacks in France also fit into a broader pattern across Europe. In December 2023, the clerical dictatorship’s agents targeted the NCRI’s representation office in Berlin with incendiary devices, weeks after a similar assault on a supporters’ center in northern Paris. Less than a year later, in September 2024, a supporters’ building of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Stockholm was firebombed with Molotov cocktails, the first such operation since the start of Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidential term. The Iranian Resistance has urged European governments to arrest and prosecute those responsible, warning that embassies and networks tied to Tehran’s intelligence services and the Revolutionary Guard are at the heart of these plots.