Anti-Iran groups join smear campaign against Iranian musician jailed in France

By Ivan Kesic

Almost three weeks after he was arbitrarily arrested and jailed in France, Iranian musician and cultural figure Bashir Biazar finds himself in the throes of militant anti-Iran groups.

As the likelihood of his release and possible deportation from France increases, some elements associated with the anti-Iran terror cult MKO have mounted a campaign to keep him behind bars.

Biazar was summoned by French police on June 4 without a warrant and was arrested immediately after he arrived at the police station. He was then transferred to a detention facility for illegal migrants.

In a chargesheet filed by the French interior ministry, a copy of which is in the possession of Press TV, Biazar has been accused of “Iranian propaganda,” “anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism,” “hateful social media posts,” being a “vector of hatred,” and posing a “threat to public order in France.”

Human rights activists, Iranian government officials, and Biazar’s family and friends have firmly rejected the charges against him as baseless and politically motivated.

On Monday, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights and deputy judiciary chief for international affairs, reiterated that the French detainment of Biazar was illegal.

He emphasized that a French court has told the Iranian national that he must leave the country within 28 days, but he has been imprisoned over the past 20 days.

"It is really unfathomable why they should keep him in custody until the last day," Gharibabadi said, adding that Iranian authorities are in contact with their French counterparts to seek his release.

Biazar’s lawyer has also slammed his client’s continued detention and planned expulsion as “political.”

Anti-Iran groups up the ante

Anti-Iran groups in France have in recent days upped the ante to make sure Biazar continues to languish in a French jail on charges that according to activists smack of political vendetta.

On June 20, some of these groups based in Paris filed a complaint against the Iranian music maestro, accusing him of "participation in acts of torture" and "intelligence for a foreign power."

The complaint is based solely on his previous work for the Song Department of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the country’s state broadcaster.

Behind the complaint is a group named "Iran Justice," whose activity has been focused on spreading disinformation and propaganda against Iran, under the guise of "fighting for human rights."

The group is headed by Chirinne (Shirin) Ardakani, a French lawyer of Iranian origin who has a background in cooperation with radical separatist groups, designated as terrorist groups in Iran.

During the last two years, Ardakani has been spreading propaganda against Iran on social media platforms, including debunked lies about the cases of Mahsa Amini and Armita Geravand, while defending convicted murderers who were involved in Western-backed riots in 2022.

To gain media attention, she falsely presented herself as a lawyer for the Amini family and Narges Mohammadi, even though the families of the two women never even mentioned her by name.

Her anti-Iran engagement has been full of venom, such as insulting millions of Iranians at the funeral of the late President Ebrahim Raeisi as "fanatics" and the funeral ceremony as an "industry of death."

Slandering of Iranians

Ardakani founded the aforementioned NGO as a so-called "legal task force", with the mission of suing and slandering Iranian officials, as evidenced by her open threat that "they should not walk peacefully in the European Union."

Last year, she indicted an Iranian minister and the top commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Paris, using baseless accusations and conspiracy theories about "hidden fatwas."

Her claim that the statement – "those responsible for the riots will pay wherever they are" – "encourages terrorism" was intended to have IRGC on the EU list of terrorist groups.

After that move, which the French media described as symbolic, Ardakani this time turned against Bashir Biazar, an Iranian musician and cultural figure currently based in France with his family.

This time, as in the previous two cases, Ardakani presented herself to the media as a lawyer representing alleged "political prisoners," again without verifiable accreditation or even providing personal names.

She filed a complaint against Biazar for alleged "personal participation" in televised confessions of convicted criminals, for which she did not provide any evidence or indications, which she interprets as "forced," again without evidence.

She also accused him of acting on French soil as "an agent of the Islamic Republic, seeking to gather information on exiled anti-Iranian activists and to intimidate them," which is a repetition of the baseless accusations of Paris.

Her primary motive with the indictment, according to her own words, is to block his expulsion back to Iran so that "all questioning and investigations can be carried out to reveal the truth."

Jailed Iranian musician's social media activities belie French claims against him

A detailed examination of Bashir Biazar’s social media activities, especially in recent months, makes it clear that his arrest in France is politically motivated.

Mockery of law

According to activists, with false accusations of torture and guilt by association, which goes against the basic tenets of the legal profession, she plans to keep him in prison and thus torture him and his family.

Earlier, in an interview with Mehr News Agency, Mohammad Mahdi Naraghian, former head of the Music and Song Center at IRIB, had raised the possibility that anti-Iranian groups would seek revenge on Biazar because he refuted their propaganda such as the fake arson of the Iranian embassy in Paris.

Naraghian pointed out inconsistencies in the case against Biazar, such as conflicting statements about his legal documents and stressed that the charges against him are politically motivated and baseless.

Referring to Biazar's expulsion proceedings, his French lawyer Rachid Lemoudaa told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that "there is nothing, in terms of law, that justifies this measure."

He explained that his client expressed himself on social networks, as "anyone could do freely in a state governed by the rule of law," adding that he considers "this procedure as political, and politics has no place in law."

Lemoudaa also said that Biazar intended to start a hunger strike until he is freed.

As reported by the Press TV website earlier, the close examination of his activities on social media networks, particularly X (formerly Twitter), exposed the unfounded nature of charges against him.

All his social media posts, comments, and tags—whether on X or Instagram—have been written in Persian, indicating they are not intended for a French audience.

According to the Press TV website analysis and examination of his social media activities, no French person follows him, and no French citizen has ever interacted with his posts.

His social media activities, like millions of pro-Palestine advocates around the world, including in France, have primarily focused on the unfolding Israeli genocide in Gaza since October last year.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk