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The 30th court session examining the charges against 104 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) as well as the organization’s nature as a legal entity, was held on March 4th in branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani.

After the Judge started the commence of the trial, Madah, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case, reviewed the previous sessions saying that pamphlets that were discovered in the 1360s from the MRK team houses were presented to the court.

In these pamphlets, the MEK taught bombing, forgery, stealing people’s cars, forming team houses, keeping weapons, and carrying out operations and assassinating the people of Iran. The source of these pamphlets is the MEK’s official journal, Mujahed.

According to the lawyer, some other pamphlets were not taken from the journal. They only had a security code and this pamphlet was given to the head of the unit team to distribute among the members. These pamphlets were discovered in the MEK cars and team houses. Maddah said, “If the defendants’ lawyers have doubts about the authenticity of these pamphlets, they can refer them to an expert”.

The problem raised by the defendants’ lawyers was that some of the defendants were not members of the organization at the time of the crime and later became members of the organization.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer replied: “Being a member of a criminal group is enough for a person to be considered a rebel. It is not necessary to take up arms. More than 17 of the organization’s former members and a large number of experts have appeared in court so far and testified that the accused ones of the organization were involved in bombings and assassinations.”

Mansour Nazari, a former member of the MEK who was a member of the group, for about 23 years appeared in the court. He lives in France and he states that had showed up in the court voluntarily. In his testimonies, Nazari spoke of a victim of torture in the MEK:

I was present at the trial of this person. Fathollah Fathi wanted to leave the organization, but people like Mahvash Sepehri said that this person should be executed. The MEK is a corrupt and complicated system, and they treated and tortured people who were recruited by it and wanted to leave the organization in the worst way.

About his own experience of being tortured he said, “I was under a lot of mental pressure and in all the meetings they held, such as the Digh meeting [one of the self-criticism meetings in the MEK], where they subjected people to mental and psychological pressure. In the Dagh meetings, they subjected and attacked those who had problems. I myself have been subjected many times in these meetings, especially by Mojgan Parsai, who was notoriously known for her violence and brutality.”

“During the 22 years that I left the organization, I have said many times in various articles that the organization’s defectors are like an antidote to this cancerous tumor.”

In response to the question of the lawyer for the defendants about how decisions were made, communicated, and implemented in theMEK, Mansour Nazari said: “Decision-making is always made by the top of the organization, and other members, except for the executor, are not informed of the decisions. The leadership council includes women from the organization, including Maryam Rajavi, Mahvash Sepehri, Fahmieh Arvani, Mojgan Parsiai, Roqiyeh Abbasi, Zohreh Atrianfar, Sepideh Ebrahimi, Zahra Marikhi, Jila Dehim, Mehraban Hajinejad, Soraya Shahri, and more, but I don’t remember when they made the decisions.”

He added, “The members of the Leadership Council were the executors of the orders of the head of the organization and made decisions on how to execute and implement them. Therefore, they are the executors and decision-makers. They were also informed of the actions and were in contact with all members of the MEK.

Elahe Pirouzfar, the lawyer for the defendants, appeared on the stand and asked Mansour Nazari, whether women played a role in the decision-making regarding the terrorist act. Nazari replied: The members of the Leadership Council were the executors of the orders of the head of the organization and made decisions on how to execute and implement them. Therefore, they are the executors and decision-makers. They were also aware of the actions and were in contact with all members of the MEK.

Seyyed Jalal Sadatian, one of the survivors of the terrorist attack that blew up the office of the Islamic Republic Party, appeared on the stand and said: “My ears were damaged in the explosion and my body parts were damaged, and the damage caused cannot be compensated.”

Yasser Ezzati, a former child soldier of the MEK also testified ih the 30^th session of the MEK trial. He was involved with the MEK since he was 3. He left the group at the age of 27.

He addressed the court:

When I was younger, we, about 800 of us, ranging from infants to 19 years old, were sent to Germany to receive the necessary trainings. Kak Saleh [a commander of the MEK ranks], gave us organizational training and brainwashed us. We returned to Iraq in 1976, and in 1977, I witnessed the self-immolation of people at Camp Ashraf who could not cope with the conditions there. Also, in 1999, one of the members killed himself with a gun, which the MEK’s journal published under the title “Unwanted Shot.”

Ezzati explained about the female child soldier, Alan Mohammadi: “Alan Mohammadi was 15 years old. She was a militia like me. I mean she had been trained to be a child soldier but she did not have such a personality for fighting, struggle and revolution. She could not bear it and she shot heقlself.”

Masoud Sadeghi Azad, a survivor of the terrorist attack on the Islamic Republic Party’s office, appeared on the stand and after taking the oath, stated:

“Usually, people would receive invitations to enter the meetings in the office of the party, meaning that no one would enter this meeting without an invitation, but that day, Mr. Kolahi strangely guided everyone who was in the courtyard into the building.”

Asked by judge Dehghani if he had any information about Kolahi, the operative of the explosion, Sadeghi Azad answered, “Until the party building was blown up, we did not know Mr. Kolahi. He was in charge of the meetings. Kolahi always checked the invitations, but on the day of the incident, he brought people into the hall with great courtesy. Apparently, he had placed a box of explosives in a book cover under the meeting table. I was working in the Prime Minister’s office at the time. Kashmiri also killed Martyr Bahonar and Martyr Rajai. Kashmiri was someone we all followed in leading prayers and he became the Imam of the congregation. This is how hypocrisy misleads people.”

In the end, Judge Dehghani said: So far, the statements of 14 families of victims have been heard in court and their complaints have been registered, and more than 12 lawyers were present in court. 5 are the defendants’ hired lawyers, and the opinions of 10 experts in the offending fields have been used, and 28 witnesses have testified in court that 17 were members of the organization that had left and 11 were members of the Republican Party or committee commanders and firefighters. Given that the number of complaints is large, we expect a long time for the hearings. The next court session will be held on April 14, 1404.

The 29th court session examining the charges against 104 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) as well as the organization’s nature as a legal entity, was held on February 18 in branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani.

The judge announced the opening of the court saying: Given the presence of the prosecutor’s representative, the lawyers of the plaintiffs and defendants, and some of the plaintiffs in the session, and the formality and openness of the court, in compliance with all the formalities of the Criminal Procedure Code, especially Articles 2, 3, 5, 7, and Articles 296, 297, 315, and 382 of this law, we will begin the continuation of the first session by declaring it official and public.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Masoud Maddah, said: “Regarding the terrorist crimes of the MEK, in the previous session we applied the legal dimensions of this issue to the crime of leading a criminal group and its organization with engineering operations.

In this session, I will apply the examples and material elements of the crime of leading a criminal group, the subject of Article 130 of the Islamic Penal Code, to one of the most pivotal crimes that the MEK committed, which was the discussion of team houses and repeated assassinations and torture.”

According to lawyer Maddah, it is not necessarily the case that the leaders of the MEK themselves are directly involved in criminal operations. It is not the case that in the bombings, assassinations, and tortures, need to be present in the crimes and carry them out.

Presenting some examples of the MEK crimes, the lawyer said, “At one point in time, the MEK took actions such as assassinating civilians to demonstrate its existence, as I presented the confessions of a MEK member named Mehran Asadeghi in the previous session. He stated that the organization ordered us to carry out these terrorist acts if 30 out of every 50 people were ordinary people so that the organization would survive and demonstrate its existence. They reproduce numerous pamphlets and distribute them among their members in team houses.”

Massoud Khodabandeh, a defected member of the MEK who had been a member of the group for 16 years, appeared on the stand and swore to tell nothing but the truth in court.

Khodabandeh said in court: “I became acquainted with the organization a few years before the revolution, and then I went to England and became a member of the organization, and I was in Iranian Kurdistan for 2 years. After that, I went to Iraq with Massoud Rajavi. I traveled to Iraq and Europe. I took Maryam Rajavi from Iraq to France. In France, I decided to leave the organization. I had 2 passports, which I handed in and went to London, and I have been in contact with the MEK since 1998. With the help of my wife, I wrote 3 books about the MEK. During this time, I also participated in a court as a witness. I appeared in this court today. I confirm all the books and pamphlets introduced in the court.”

The former member of the MEK, said: “I was in the organization for 15 years. I was present in England as a supporter. We established the Committee to Support the People’s Mojahedin in London with the help of Dr. Reza Raisi. Then I went to prison. After my release, I went to Paris. I was assigned to take Radio Mojahedin to the Sardasht region, where I was in this region for 2 years. After that, I went to Iraq and Paris. In Paris, I was responsible for protecting Bani Sadr’s daughter. After Massoud Rajavi’s divorce from Bani Sadr’s daughter, I was with Maryam Rajavi. I was on the team to take over Camp Ashraf and develop it. Sometime later, I left the organization and since then I have been collecting materials related to the Mojahedin.”

Massoud Khodabandeh said: “The process of producing a person who straps a bomb to himself and detonates it is already in his book. They named people as leaders, they tortured these people and ordered others to torture them. I took Mehdi Abrishamchi and took him to Kurdistan. When this person came, he was different from the person who tortured him later, just like Massoud Rajavi, whom we saw earlier, was different from the Rajavi who went to Saddam. Ugliness gradually happens and an ordinary person cannot suddenly become a torturer.”

He said: “In meetings, men were forced to curse their wives and divorce their wives. One of these people, named Commander Kamal, was in that meeting and refused to accept it, so they took him out and half an hour later they said he had set himself on fire. In fact, Massoud and his apparatus claimed that they were doing these things against me and that these people should be eliminated in a way that their voices would not be heard. There is a voice of Massoud in a meeting saying how much money to take and carry out a terrorist act.”

Khodabandeh continued: “During Saddam’s era, if I wanted to implement a project, they would pay for it, but this has not happened for years and they cannot invite someone from, for example, Canada, pay for his accommodation and other expenses to participate in the MKO gatherings, so they use people from within the same country. An American senator told me that when someone is attacking the Islamic Republic, we do not become enemies with him.”

The judge asked: When did these statements come from?
Khodabandeh replied: “Four or five years ago. Currently, the MKO has changed shape. At one time, this organization, centered on Saddam and Massoud Rajavi, only carried out military terrorist operations. This military terrorist apparatus became an information and propaganda apparatus after Turki Faisal (who announced Massoud Rajavi’s death without coordination). The core of this organization was also entrusted to Turki Faisal and Maryam Rajavi. After Saddam’s death, there was no place for Massoud Rajavi in this organization, so he had to be put aside, dead or alive. I tried many times to speak in the Brussels court, but they did not allow me to do so.”