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Iranians detained in money laundering probe

Several people close to a banned Iranian opposition group have been arrested in Switzerland and France in connection with a money-laundering investigation.

The group of about ten detainees has connections to the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which is listed as a terrorist group in the European Union and United States. They were arrested last week and are still in custody, judicial sources and the group’s lawyer said.

The police swoop was coordinated between French and Swiss officials who were acting at the request of Swiss judges examining the funding of a group linked to the PMOI.

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that an investigation was ongoing in this context but did not give precise details of the number of people being detained.

Earlier this year the PMOI called on the EU to remove it from its list of banned terrorist organisations after the British parliament upheld a court ruling in June that its inclusion on a list of banned groups in Britain was wrong.

But the EU said in July it was keeping the PMOI on its blacklist, adding it saw no grounds for amending the listing of 48 groups subject to asset freezes and other sanctions in Europe.

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