Iranian resistance refutes Mousavi claims

PARIS, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Claims that members of an Iranian dissident group were tied to the slaying of the nephew of an Iranian opposition leader are "ludicrous," backers claim.

At least eight people died when supporters of the Iranian opposition movement clashed with riot police during the Shiite holiday of Ashura in December.

Tehran said Ali Mousavi, a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, was shot and killed during the Ashura unrest.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Haidar Moslehi said investigators now believe members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran were behind the assassination.

"We have no doubt that (the PMOI) has been involved in this issue," he said.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella organization in Paris representing the PMOI, denied the allegations in a statement sent to United Press International.

"This ludicrous allegation comes at a time when the regime's senior leaders constantly express their concern on the role of the PMOI in commanding and leading the popular uprising," the statement read, adding, "The days of this regime are numbered."

Tehran blames the PMOI, Washington and London for playing a role in the unrest that surfaced in Iran following disputed June presidential elections.

The PMOI earned a terrorist reputation for targeting of the clerical regime that emerged in Tehran following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The group surrendered to U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and now claims to back a policy of peaceful regime change.