U.S. trial upheld for PMOI member

NEW YORK, July 29 (UPI) -- A federal court in Brooklyn upheld a terrorist prosecution against a citizen of the United States who works for the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

In United States vs. Taleb-Jedi, filed last week, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York Judge Brian M. Cogan ruled that a woman, Zeinab Taleb-Jedi, had provided material support for the PMOI.

The PMOI is based in the eastern Iraqi city of Ashraf. It seeks to overthrow the current Iranian regime. Though the group is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, the U.S. military in Iraq has engaged the group in the past for its stance on Iran.

Taleb-Jedi said her indictment is baseless because of the collaboration between the PMOI and the U.S. military in Iraq, The New York Law Journal reported.

In his opinion, Cogan wrote, "Foreign relations generally and specifically during a time of war are not black and white, and the PMOI need not be viewed as a monolithic entity."

Taleb-Jedi emigrated from Iran to the United States in 1978, gaining citizenship in 1996. She worked in Ashraf in 1999, teaching English while a member of the political branch of the PMOI. She was arrested in 2006 on her return to the United States.

Taleb-Jedi said the First Amendment afforded her the right to belong to the group, but Cogan denied that claim, stating freedom of speech protection did not reach to individuals who were actively employed by a group designated as a terrorist organization.