Story

ONLINE DEBATE ON MARDOMTV.COM

Mr Parsa Sorbi will moderate an online debate on Mardom TV on Friday 20th November (at 11am New York time, at 17pm Germany time, at 19:30pm Teheran time).

Broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube, a panel of experts will discuss the question. Audience participation is welcome in a Q&A after each section.

https://www.mardomtv.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mardomtv/
https://www.youtube.com/c/ParsaSorbiMardomTV/

The program is in English.

ONLINE DEBATE ON MARDOMTV - panelists

PART ONE – POLITICAL CONTEXT
In this section, experts talk about the effect of the Trump administration on the fortunes of the MEK in America, Albania and Europe.

Panellists:
Mr Sina Toossi, Senior Research Analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Washington
Mr Massoud Khodabandeh, Middle East Strategy Consultants, former MEK member, UK
Dr Olsi Yazeji, Albanian-Canadian Historian, media presenter, Albania
Mr Reza Jebelli Sadeghi, former MEK official in the USA, now working in the EU Parliament, Brussels

PART TWO – MEK IN ALBANIA
This section focuses on MEK activities and behaviour since arriving in Albania and local reactions.

Panellists:
Mr Gjergji Thanasi, award winning investigative journalist, Albania
Ms Migena Bala, lawyer from Tirana, Albania
Mr Hassan Heyrani, businessman in Tirana, former MEK member representing the ex-members in Albania from Tirana

PART THREE – MEK AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
This section drills down into the behaviour of the MEK in relation to Albanian civic life and lives of the membership.

Panellists:
Mr Edward Termado, Armenian-Iranian former POW (Iran-Iraq war) and former MEK member, Germany
Ms Anne Singleton, Open Minds – Cults and Deradicalization expert, UK

CONCLUSION
Returning to the question – With Trump gone, is the MEK finished? – panellists will offer their analyses and answer audience questions

November 18, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Denied rights of families of MEK members

The Parents, wives and children who miss their loved ones in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MEK, MKO, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi) are probably the most ignored people in the mass media, although their case of human rights violation is one of the most critical ones. Their rights of contacting their loved ones in the MEK have been violated by the MEK leaders for over three decades.

On the other side, the basic rights of those who are in the MEK are violated on daily basis because they do not have access to the outside world. There is no supervision on the cult-like regulations of the group. Being deprived of contacting their loved ones, the MEK members are forced labors, kept in forced celibacy under the strict jargons of a manipulative ideological system under the leadership of Maryam and Masoud Rajavi.

Defectors of the group are living witnesses whose testimonies should be taken serious by the human rights activists.

Bagher Mohammadi is the most recent defector of the MEK who, a few weeks ago, escaped the group to enjoy the rest of his life in free world. He was a soldier of the Iranian army in Iran-Iraq war when he was confined by the MEK forces in 1988. He was taken as a hostage by the group for 32 years. His family has been looking forward for his release during these years.

In the official statement that Bagher published after his defection from the MEK he announced that the group leaders had never informed him about the actions his family had taken in order to visit him.”In those days, my family had come to camp Ashraf several times,”he writes.”My mother and my brother had come but I was never told about them. When I defected the group in Albania I could manage to contact my family and then I got to know that they had tried a lot to visit me in the MEK.”

Bagher is not the first defector of the MEK with such an experience. A large number of former members of the MEK assert that once they were in the group they had no news of their family, even sometimes they were told fake news about their families.

GholamAli Mirzaiee is another defector living in Albania. He was recently interviewed by BBC Persian. The report about the life of Gholam Ali in the MEK prison, shows the scenes of his family in front of Camp Ashraf, Iraq, in 2010.

His wife Fereshteh Mehdian is calling on him holding a board with his name on. Another scene shows Gholam Ali on the MEK’s official TV channel claiming that those who are in front of Ashraf are not his family but the agents of the Iranian Intelligence. However, the BBC had interviewed Fereshteh at the time.”My husband was a war prisoner for ten years and then imprisoned in the MEK for 21 years,”She told reporters.

“MY son was 27 days old when his father went to war and now he is 31. He has not seen his father yet.”When ten years later, Gholam Ali was asked by the BBC reporter why he was denied to visit his wife in 2010, he said,”When I heard my name from the loud speakers in front of Ashraf, I told the authorities that I had heard my name, I thought my family was there but they told me that they were not families they were mercenaries of the Iranian intelligence ministry”.

He is now in contact with his family in Iran. The BBC report shows him video calling with his son.

Farhad Rabiei - son of Barat who is captive in the MEK camp in Albania

Farhad Rabiee is the son of Barat Rabiee. Barat is still a captive in the MEK’s camp Ashraf 3 in Manza, Albania. Farhad tried hard to visit his dad in camp Ashraf, Iraq. He was allowed to meet him only once. That only time turned out to be the worse memory of his whole life. In 2003, Farhad and his family went to Camp Ashraf, Iraq to visit his Barat. Farhad was nineteen at the time. In an interview with Mardom TV, he recounts the story of that unpleasant and unforgettable day. As soon as he saw his father, he hugged him but the authorities of the MEK got mad at Barat. He was not permitted to receive his family warmly.”Farhad is the mercenary of the Iranian regime”, the authorities argued.

Farhad recalls the bitter memories of that day. When his father wanted to hug his wife (Farhad’s mother), he was confronted by the group authorities again. Farhad witnessed her mother being physically attacked by female members of the MEK.”That day was the worst memory of my whole life… I saw with my own eyes that my mom’s heart broke, she was standing away weeping tears while MEK members were shouting at her”he says.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Shahidi-Jassem-Bro-en.mp4

To download the video file click here

Kazem Shahidi is the brother of Jassem Shahidi. Jassem has been in the MEK for over 35 years. His family including his elderly mother has never seen him during these years. A few years ago, they went to Camp Ashraf, Iraq but they MEK leaders did not allow them to visit Jassem. Instead, they were attacked by stones or other things thrown from inside the camp.”My mother was harasses [in front of Ashraf] and again we could not contact my brother”, Kazem says. He has recently sent letters and messages to Albanian authorities, human rights bodies and activists asking them to pave the way for families to contact their loved ones in the MEK’s prison-like camp in Albania.

The cases of grieving families of MEK members are countless. They have been making efforts to find a way to contact their children in the MEK. Their calls must be heard. The elderly heartbroken parents should be able to see their beloved children before they die. This is a severe humanitarian issue.

Mazda Parsi

November 18, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK and Children – Farhad Rabiee

Farhad was two years old when his father went to Iran-Iraq war. This was the beginning of a prolonged separation. He was sixteen when he heard his father’s voice on the phone, for the first time. He called from Germany, his voice sounded terrified and he thought that Farhad was living in a devastated Iran in which there were no schools. His father did not believe Farhad telling him that he was in grade one in high school.

Farhad Rabiei - son of Barat who is captive in the MEK camp in Albania

The short phone call, at least, let Farhad and his family know that his father was alive. Barat, Farhad’s father was taken as a war prisoner by the forces of the Mujahedin Khaql Organization (the MEK, MKO, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi). As Barat later told his mother in a shadowy visit in Turkey he had been intimidated to stay in the MEK. The mother (Farhad’s grandmother) gave a photo of Farhad to his father.

In 2003, Farhad and his family went to Camp Ashraf, Iraq to visit his Barat. Farhad was nineteen at the time. As soon as he saw his father, he hugged him but the authorities of the MEK got mad with Barat. He was not allowed to receive his family warmly. “Farhad is the mercenary of the Iranian regime”, the authorities argued.

Farhad recalls the bitter memories of that day. When his father wanted to hug his wife (Farhad’s mother), he was confronted by the group authorities again. Farhad witnessed her mother being physically attacked by female members of the MEK. “That day was the worst memory of my whole life… I saw with my own eyes that my mom’s heart broke, she was standing away weeping tears while MEK members were shouting at her” he says.

During the visit, Barat secretly told Farhad that a microphone was hidden under his clothes. He was not able to talk comfortably with his family because he was under supervision. Farhad was under too much pressure especially when Mehdi Abrishamchi one of the authorities of the MEK started addressing the families in the hall. He left the hall. The group supervisors did not allow Barat to say goodbye to his son. Farhad returned home with tearing eyes. “After that visit, I was sick for a several months,” he says.

The other side of this heartbreaking destiny is Barat of whom there is not enough information from inside the MEK’s cut-like structure. Mohammad Razaghi a defector of the group is one of the few people who know Barat Rabiee. He worked with Barat in the same base for about ten years. “Barat used to find somewhere safe to covertly watch the only photo of his son that he had,” Razaghi said.

Today, in the fourth decade of his life, Farhad is still looking forward to the release of his father from the Mujahedin Khalq. He has his own business in Iran. He assures Barat –in case he finds the chance to hear his son’s voice– to accept his father whole-heartedly and to help him make a comfortable living.

November 14, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Is MEK arming itself with anti-drone rifles?

Just like in the years of communism, when Albanians were informed about what was happening in Albania by Voice of America, GR2, RAI or the BBC, today we often learn about events that take place in Albania from foreign media. In an article in the Turkish paper Sabah Daily we learn that Albania has imported sophisticated anti-drone rifles from Turkey. This paper reports that the Turkish company National War Technologies Defence Systems Inc., based in Antalya, with the Turkish name Ulusal Harp Technologies Savunma Sistemleri A.S., has exported anti-drone rifles to Albania. This Sabah Daily news was widely reflected in the Albanian media, but without making an ‘in depth’ analysis!

Some strange aspects of this extremely sophisticated arms import drew our attention from the point of view of investigative journalism.

The Rama government has a very active propaganda section for the government’s successes. It becomes ‘news with text and video’ when whitewashing the inauguration of even a school. For the Ministry of Defence the shooting of about 50 shells in total with a 20 mm calibre Narval automatic cannon is also special news. The Ministry of the Interior is proud and creates propaganda even when the Swedish Embassy in Tirana, in order to modernize the Albanian police, donates a dozen bicycles to the Elbasan police, in order to increase the efficiency of community patrols.

Interestingly, not a single Albanian ministry admitted the import into Albania of such ultra-modern equipment, useable for homeland defence, for the protection of the privacy of Albanian VIPs. Why this total silence on the part of the Albanian ministries?! Why do none of them dare take ownership of importing such ultra-modern equipment?! Where’s the sleeping rabbit?

There are two possibilities;

First: These anti-drone weapons were imported to Albania only for the purpose of trafficking. The scheme is an old one when all kinds of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles of the MANPAD class type IGLLA 16 or even IGLLA 18 or even MISAGH II, were imported allegedly for the needs of Albania’s Ministry of Defence. Since Albania was used only to issue the document called EUC (End User Certificate), the newly purchased missiles were resold in all four corners of the world using as realtors mainly firms with Israeli owners such as Panorama LTD. Since neither the Ministry of Defence, nor the Ministry of the Interior, nor SHISH (National Intelligence Service) can afford the purchase of anti-drone rifles in Albania, the question arises, who imported these anti-drone rifles in Albania? Were they bought by the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports?! Turkish colleagues at the Sabah Daily confirm that the EUC (End User Certificate) document for the import into Albania of anti-drone rifles is regular, original and signed by an Albanian official named Ëngjëllush Bekteshi.

Second: The anti-drone rifles were legally imported into Albania by an Albanian-owned company in the service of the former terrorist organization MEK (Iranians of Manza). If this second variant turns out to be true, after consulting the export documents of the Turkish company based in Antalya, we will officially ask the Rama government: What is the purpose of importing anti-drone rifles from Turkey for several thousand former terrorists?! In the agreement of the Albanian Government with the UNHCR for the admission of these former Iranian terrorists in Albania, it is written in black and white that they are accepted for humanitarian reasons as endangered persons (Sic!). We ask: Was the equipping of these former Iranian terrorists with extremely sophisticated weapons such as anti-drone rifles for humanitarian reasons?! Do the Albanian government, the Ministry of the Interior, SHISH, anti-terrorism agencies know whether these extremely sophisticated weapons have ended up in the hands of the former terrorists of the Rajavi Cult or not? As an Albanian taxpayer, I ask the above-mentioned institutions, if such weapons are in the hands of former Iranian terrorists, how much and how do they serve the security of my homeland?!

I am closing this post by inviting the competent Albanian authorities to refute my findings by making public the name of the Albanian company or state institution that imported such anti-drone weapons from Turkey to Albania. I ask the Albanian authorities not to bother me with the alleged ‘preservation of state secrecy’, because since October 17 the Turkish daily (and a dozen other media outlets afterwards) have published in Turkish and English the news of the export of such anti-drone rifles to Albania. When the news was made public 3-4 weeks ago, there can be no more state secrets. There is only secret traffic of sophisticated weapons armaments to members of a former terrorist organization called MEK (for more info consult the State Department List up to 2012).

Waiting for an official refutation……

Gjergji Thanasi, Translated by Iran Interlink

November 14, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK – Extremely troubling aspect of Barrett’s history

President Donald Trump has succeeded, aided and abetted by a willing and corrupt senate, in ramming through his third Supreme Court nominee, the very conservative Amy Coney Barrett. Her successful appointment to the nation’s highest court does not bode well for freedom and justice at home or abroad.

There has been much conversation about Barrett’s Catholic faith, which, in and of itself, is entirely irrelevant to any discussion of her qualifications. But there are many issues that are pertinent to any conversation about her lack of suitability for her new position, and one of them does relate to her religious beliefs.

The new Supreme Court justice is a member of an organization called ‘People of Praise’, comprised mainly, but not exclusively, of Catholics. It grew from the Pentecostal movement, and “The group organizes and meets outside the purview of a church and includes people from several Christian denominations, but its members are mostly Roman Catholic.”

Female members of ‘People of Praise’ are referred to as ‘handmaids’, and former members state that women are expected to be totally submissive to their husbands. Coral Anika Theill, who was part of the group for many years and has written a book about her experiences, Bonshea: Making Light of the Dark’, states that her husband accompanied her to doctor’s appointments to assure that she was not obtaining birth control. Rebekah Powers was raised in the group, but left at age 18. She has stated that “It has taken decades of therapy and hard work to overcome the intense feelings of shame and fear of damnation that she said marked her childhood.”

While Barrett’s association with the ‘People of Praise’ cult should have disqualified her, one might argue that that is placing too much emphasis on her religious beliefs. This writer thinks that emphasis is completely appropriate, but if not, let’s look at another extremely troubling aspect of her history.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Michael-Brooks-202010%20.mp4

To download the video file click here

For several years, a terrorist organization called the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (Mujahadeen-e-Khalk; known simply as MEK) was officially designated a terrorist organization by the United States government. The sole purpose of the existence of the MEK is to overthrow the government of Iran and install a right-wing replacement, one that would be reminiscent of the brutal reign of the Shah of Iran.

“From 2000 to 2001, Barrett was part of a team that represented the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The council was seeking a review of its then designation as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ by the US government.” In 2012, the ‘terrorist’ designation was removed, and since then the MEK has received the support of prominent Republicans, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton and the erratic former New York City mayor, and now Trump attorney, Rudi Giuliani, who refers to the MEK as a ‘government in exile’. This statement is ludicrous; every reputable poll of Iranians, both those living in Iran and those in other nations, indicates that they oppose both the goals and tactics of the MEK. But as Trump’s attorney, one must not look too closely at facts.

Masquerading as a pro-democracy organization, the secretive group is responsible for the deaths of at least 12,000 Iranians. On June 28, 1981, the group bombed the Islamic Republic Party headquarters in Tehran, killing seventy-three people. The group has been accused of working with Israel to assassinate Iranian scientists.

The group’s treatment of its own members is not much better. For example, Reza Sadeghi had been a member of MEK for twenty-six years and hds not left the MEK compound for more than ten years. “During that time, he’d had no contact with his family or news of them. The MEK leadership had forced him and most of the other cadres living at Camp Ashraf to abandon even their closest relationships. Most painful for Sadeghi were thoughts of his son, Paul, his only child, now 16 years old. Sadeghi hadn’t seen or spoken to Paul since he’d arrived in Iraq.”

In 2020, Sadeghi told the organization’s leaders that he was leaving to find his son. He was detained and forced into a truck. “’You’re dead,’ one of Sadeghi’s captors told him. ‘We are going to put you in the ground, and no one will ever know what happened to you.’ Forced disappearances and solitary confinement were not uncommon at Camp Ashraf, and Sadeghi was sure he would be executed.” He was able to escape and was, ironically, rescued by two U.S. terrorists (soldiers) who were out patrolling.

The MEK was started by Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Maryam, who fancied themselves the next rulers of Iran, once they and their 2,000 – 3,000 followers were able to convince the 80,000,000 Iranians to reject the Islamic Revolution they fought so hard for, and follow them. Like Giuliani, realistic thinking is not their strong suit. As of this writing, Massoud Rajavi is believed to be dead, and his wife is seldom, if ever, seen in public.

This is the organization that the United States’ newest Supreme Court justice has defended. These are the people – who have killed thousands of Iranians and who support the overthrow of the sovereign, people’s government of Iran – that Barrett says are not terrorists. The Intercept reported that many female members over the years were force to have sex with Rajavi; many were forced to be sterilized, so they would not be distracted by children, and could fully devote their time to Rajavi and his unholy cause. Based on her association with the ‘People of Praise’ cult, this is probably just fine with her.

As of this writing, the U.S. election has not been decided. It is disheartening to imagine that so much of the citizenry has bought into Trump’s lies, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and misogyny. A Biden victory will not bring substantial change, but would not necessarily spell the end of any semblance of democracy. Should Trump be re-elected, it is likely that the MEK will continue to receive praise and financial assistance from the U.S. government. Other organizations, perhaps Black Lives Matter, may be designated terrorist organizations. In the Orwellian world of Donald Trump, this is only too possible. And the gradual erosion of human rights and respect for international law, neither of which the U.S. ever cared much about anyway, will become a fast-moving landslide.

Robert Fantina’s latest book is Empire, Racism and Genocide: a History of US Foreign Policy (Red Pill Press).

by Robert Fantina – Counter Punch

November 11, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Rahim Kiukan’s family complains to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances against the Albanian government

United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office in Geneva
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
November 9, 2020

We, the family of Rahim Kiukan, including his wife Behjat Seddiqi and his children Mozhgan, Mehran, Mohsen, and Leila Kiukan and his grandchildren (a total of 12 individuals), want to lodge a complaint against the Albanian government under the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of which the Albanian government is a signatory.

Rahim Kiukan left Iran in 1981 to join the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) in Iraq. We were unaware of this for years until those who left the organization and came back to Iran informed us that he was at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. We have not had any contact with him or any information about his condition for nearly 40 years now.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Giukan_1.mp4

To download the video file click here

Years later, we were informed that all the members of this organization, who were in Camp Ashraf and then Camp Liberty in Iraq, had been transferred to Albania to a closed and remote camp where the residents could not be reached under any circumstances. Some former members have reported the presence of Rahim Kiukan in the camp.

We wrote letters to the Prime Minister and other Albanian authorities, as well as European officials, asking for information about Rahim Kiukan. We also signed a petition with other families addressed to the Albanian government requesting contact with our relatives at the MEK camp in Albania. This petition had more than 11,000 signatures. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from the Albanian government.

We also prepared letters and video clips addressed to Rahim Kiukan and published them in cyberspace so that he might see or hear them and give news about himself to his family after four decades, but unfortunately there was no news. We are aware that MEK members in their camp in Albania have no access to the outside world.

During this time, we have faced many legal problems regarding the properties of Rahim Kiukan, which can only be resolved with power of attorney from him.
We request the relevant international body to address this issue. We would like to find Rahim Kiukan, who has been missing for four decades, and connect him to his elderly and ailing wife and his children.

Family of Rahim Kiukan
Tehran, Iran

November 10, 2020 0 comments

Albania

Will the Albanian Ombudsman investigate Iranians’ Camp at Manez?

To the Honorable Ombudsman Madame Erinda Ballanca

I am Gjergji Thanasi, an Albanian journalist working predominantly free lance and specialized in investigative journalism. I am addressing my concern to you regarding the ex terrorist Organization MEK (The Mujahedin of the Iranian People), now residing in the Administrative Unit of Manez (Durres Municipality), in a gated and fenced camp called “Ashraf 3”.

Albanian Ombudsman

The members of this organization beginning from 2013 (over 200 persons), and especially in 2016 (several thousand persons) were transferred from Iraq to Albania, as per an undisclosed agreement between the Edi Rama Government and UNHCR.

My concern regarding that camp of such ex terrorists (State Department delisted MEK as a terrorist organization only in 2012) covers not only potential risks to Albania and Albanians, but also the plight of the Iranian members of the said organization, the inmates of “Ashraf 3” Camp at Manez.

Based on my ground investigation I can inform you that this organization labels any member as a mercenary of Mullahs’ regime (the actual Iranian government), as an Iranian spy or even a terrorist, immediately after such a member leaves the organization, gives up his Jihad ( holy war) against Tehran, thus trying to live a normal and quiet life in Tirana. Even veteran members (30 to 40 years) of the organization do not escape continues labeling on different media controlled by the organization as Iranian spies and terrorists immediately after they abandon the ranks of the organization. Such a reaction makes me believe that there are people among the inmates of the “Ashraf 3” Camp who remain in the camp not on their free will.

Honorable Ombudsman

Based on my investigation I inform you that there is a considerable number of inmates of that camp who want to leave this organization, MEK ( The Mujahedin of the Iranian People). They want to de radicalize themselves and they want to spend the remaining years of their lives living normal lives in Tirana far away from the pathetic decade long attempts to commit Jihad against the Regime of Tehran. If my investigation proves to be true, then we can safely assume that the leadership, the commanders of MEK have deprived unlawfully such inmates and such comrades in arms of their personal liberty by forcefully preventing them from leaving the camp for Tirana in order to live a peaceful and civilian life there instead of a paramilitary life in the camp.

I pray to God that my investigation is wrong i.e. there are no modern slaves or serfs in that camp at Manez (Albania). Yet I implore you and your staff to investigate the possibility of the existence of the crime of unlawfully depriving dozens of persons of their personal liberty while living in that camp. I stress the fact that the inmates of “Asraf 3” Camp are not Albanians as they are ethnic Iranians, yet even these Iranians are human beings and as such they should enjoy the universal human rights while living in Albania, a NATO member country and a country candidate member to European Union.

I am using this letter to you Madame Ombudsman to draw your attention to the fact that Premier Rama declared that these Iranians were sheltered in Albania in order to protect their human rights, beginning with the life right and onwards. Precisely in order to protect their presumed violated human rights I addressed my concern to you.

Respectfully Yours,
Gjergji Thanasi
Ashraf News

November 7, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Rajavi Cult Troubles Continue in Albania

The Rajavi Cult, known in Albania as the ‘Iranians of Manzës’, has recently been experiencing a series of troubles. There are clear signs that the absurd privileges that were accorded to the cult by collaborationist sections of Albanian politics and the administration are coming to an end. The cult until yesterday, apparently abusing the support of a couple of foreign embassies in Tirana, claimed and often succeeded in having similar privileges to the Europeans in the Ottoman Empire in accordance with the Capitulations signed by the Sultan.

MEK terrorists in Albania

The cult commanders treated the Albanian police, at least to the rank of chief commissioner, with arrogance and disregard. Typical in this respect is the arrogance and aggression which was revealed in August 2018 with the poor police officers of Commissariat no. 4 in Tirana (the incident with Mr Mohammadi, Somayeh’s father). Rajavi, but also other commanders, used the VIP Hall at the Mother Teresa Airport (and the privileges granted to this hall), as if they were high-ranking personalities, when in fact in Albania they are simply people given refuge for humanitarian reasons and so! Ignoring local government and every entity of the Albanian central government was something constant in the cult’s behaviour in Albania. Albanian VIPs (mayors, MPs, former ministers and even some ministers), when invited to the cult events in Camp Ashraf 3 (Manzës), often underwent degrading treatment due to “anti-terror measures” (body search and control with metal detectors, getting out of the car and being obliged to walk 200 or so meters in peak heat, etc.).

Typical was the cult’s behaviour in the period of Lockdown when the cult’s cars freely roamed Albania and no police or army checkpoints stopped them!

Thankfully ‘the good old days’ are coming to an end. Albanian institutions and politics are pulling some ‘feathers’ from the tail of Rajavi & Co. and I am offering some examples. At the last hearing of my trial against defendant Behzad Safari, the competent judge rejected three absurd key requests by the defendant’s lawyer. Such a thing had not happened with either of the two judges who had previously had this court file. Public utilities for the supply of water, electricity, etc. are less and less making absurd concessions to the Cult in terms of payment, in terms of the deadline for electricity, water, etc. bills. The people of Manzës are no longer under pressure from the Rilindjes government to sell their lands to the Rajavi cult. Of necessity, MEK is not buying, but renting land and buildings near the camp, due to security measures to ‘protect’ itself from Tehran terrorists. Albanian police officers are less and less ready to stand ready for every whim of Rajavi. Tales of Iranian spies and terrorists are no longer swallowed as easily as a year ago, when the Director General of the State Police himself read the official press release, replete with “Iranian agents”, written and translated into Albanian in Camp Ashraf 3. The leader of the Rajavi Cult has lost a lot of credit since she returned from Rinas Airport with her tail between her legs because the border police of an EU country had turned her back, ignoring her identification document (Titre de Voyage).

In the ranks of the cult, the disbanding is evident, so much so that the perimeter fence of the camp in Manzës, rather than a protective measure to prevent the spies of the mullahs from entering the camp serves to keep the members of the Cult inside, who increasingly, instead of revolution ala Rajavi, prefer to lead a normal life in Albania, or for older people, to return to Iran to be with their sons and daughters, with their grandchildren.

While walking in Tirana recently I saw an old man about 70 years old, who looked like a familiar face. Age had taken its toll and I hardly recognized him, that he was a veteran member of the cult (over 40 years). He was exactly the person named “Cascavel Man”, because in the propaganda photos and videos of MEK he posed proudly on top of a “Cascavel”. This poor old man had already left Camp Ashraf 3 and abandoned the high ideal of “regime change” to spend his remaining days in peace and tranquillity in Tirana. I do not know if he lives on money that his relatives send from outside Albania, or if he lives on the handouts of about 300 USD per month by Rajavi, but I am sure that dark days await the Rajavi Cult when it is abandoned by people such.

Who is “Cascavel Man”?!

The poor old man was the commander of a wheeled tank called the Cascavel. Like thousands of other of Saddam Hussein’s mercenary MEKs, he attacked his homeland Iran in the last days of the Iran-Iraq war (Operation Mersad). Luckily, unlike thousands of other MEKs, he escaped alive from Iran and returned to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 1991, as a mercenary and Saddam’s hunting dog, he flattened dozens of homes, shops, schools and medical centres of the anti-Saddam Kurdish rebels with 90 mm Cascavel artillery after President Bush’s appeal. Dozens of Kurds are believed to have been killed by his Cascavel. Of course, most of them were women and children, old men and women.

As a mercenary of the dictator Saddam, it is believed that dozens of Iraqis in the swamps around Basra called “Shroog” were crushed by the Cascavel’s wheels or killed by 50 calibre machine gun bullets by this miserable MEK member. In short, when such a man with blood-stained hands up to the elbow leaves the Rajavi Cult, one can easily guess what the real situation is like in the camp, among other MEKs. When such a veteran shakes the Rajavi Cult, what about the others?!?!?! I am leaving the price for the reader to appreciate, whether it is a danger for Albania, that such a veteran walks the streets of Tirana, or not!

Why the Cult is dying in Albania

What is happening with the Rajavi Cult in Albania, is more or less what happens to any ordinary swindler when gradually their lies and deceptions start to fade. Some examples: Speculating in the presence in the Cult rallies and meetings of some dozen VIPs and former VIPs of American politics, judiciary and administration, Maryam Rajavi, the head of the Cult began to make false promises to Albanian politicians. By the way, a mayor promised to remove her name from the State Department list of persons who are not granted an entry visa to America. In fact, not only did he not remove her name from the “List of Voices”, but thanks to the lobbying of Lali Fik of Tirana, the measure was applied to the poor mayor: “Name and Shame”, ie: Fik put the mayor’s name out, making public the fact that his family was on this American blacklist! A former president of Albania was promised that the cult would lobby for his son and his girlfriend to be removed from the Black List of persons, who are banned from obtaining American visas. Result: From May 2019 until today, October 2020, the son of the former president has not yet received a US visa (SIC!). With extreme shamelessness Ilir Meta, the President of the Republic of Albania, promised the cult that he would lobby the offices of “Foggy Bottoms”, to neutralize the anti-president attitude of the “tenants” of the “Rilindja Ridge” Compound. Although the President of the country went to Camp Ashraf 3 as Emperor Barbarossa in Canossa, the embassy of Madame ‘Ambassador Kim’ still continues to be virulent against the President of the Republic. The thugs of the Rajavi Cult have started to harvest in Albania, what they sowed! I am very confident that this winter will be a winter of great solitude for the Rajavi Cult in Albania. Unfortunately, my homeland Albania will continue to function as a garbage can for MEK members, who are expelled (leave voluntarily) from EU countries such as France or Germany, where the cult offices have been emptied for many a day!

Exclusive for Ashraf News by Gjergji Thanasi – Translated by Iran Interlink

November 5, 2020 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Request to expedite the processing of hundreds of complaints by families

United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office in Geneva
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
November 3, 2020

On behalf of the suffering families of the members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO), whose loved ones joined this organization, and now have no information about their status, I would like to inform you that more than six months ago these families sent hundreds of complaints, with detailed documents and explanations. They demanded that the situation of their loved ones who became members of the MEK be investigated.

Nejat families from Khorasan Province

The MEK was stationed at Camp Ashraf in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and was fighting against Iran alongside the Iraqis. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Camp came under US protection and was then handed over to Iraqi forces as ‘the last stronghold of Saddam Hussein’.

At the urging of successive Iraqi governments and with the efforts of the United Nations, the process of MEK expulsion began, and the names of each group leaving Iraq and entering Albania were announced. The process was slow and in very small numbers. But suddenly, in the late summer of 2016, the organization announced that the rest of the people (nearly 3,000), who were supposed to be only several hundreds, had also been transferred to Albania. The names of these people were never published.

MEK members are housed in a remote, isolated camp in Albania where the residents are inaccessible and uncontactable. The families of hundreds of MEK members have no information about the condition of their loved ones.

Also, many of these families have faced various economic and legal problems, including issues related to inheritance, due to the disappearance of these people, and the lack of access to these people has caused them many difficulties for years. MEK members do not have the opportunity to do legal work or appoint a lawyer.

Recently, the MEK reacted to the complaints of these families to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances in its media and tried to make public a few out of their thousands of members and pretend that they have not disappeared but could be found in a certain place. However, their families still have no communication with or access to them.

Hundreds of letters have been sent by these families to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances. A small number of respondents have requested the completion of explanations and documents, which has been done immediately, but it seems that the process is very slow.

It should be noted that on February 6, 2007, Albania signed the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted in New York on December 20, 2006, which entered into force on November 8, 2007.

According to Article 31 of the Convention, a State Party must cooperate in the case of the enforced disappearance of any particular person in its own country. Article 32 also emphasizes this issue and the responsibilities of the member states.

These families have sent a great many letters to the Albanian government with the necessary explanations and specifications and have raised a petition signed by more than 11,000 people. The original signatures have been delivered to the Albanian embassy in Paris on 550 pages, but unfortunately there has not been any response from the Albanian government up to now. Therefore, the UN Committee needs to clarify its undertakings on the complaints it has received, and to take legal action to resolve this issue.

On behalf of the families, I would like to thank the Committee on Enforced Disappearances in advance and look forward to learning from you.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh
Nejat Society CEO
Tehran, Iran

November 4, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK and Children – Homa Khodabandeh

Homa was born in Newcastle, UK in 1979, coinciding with the Iranian Revolution. Her father Ebrahim Khodabandeh was an active member of The Muslim Students’ Association abroad. In the summer of 1980, Ebrahim joined the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) that he had found Islamic, nationalistic and anti-Imperialist. When became a full time member of the group, he left his British wife and the one and a half year-old Homa.

Homa khodabande - as a child victim of the mek cult - his father now is the ceo of nejatngo

Homa was eleven years old that got to know about her father. She saw her ID card for the first time. At school she wrote an essay about the father that she knew who he was but she did not know where he was.
Then, Homa’s grandmother took her to Baghdad, Iraq to meet her father. A few visit were made between the father and the girl but under the supervision of the MEK commanders. Homa left Iraq with tearful eyes because her father was not even able to accompany her to the airport.

During the following years, the group constantly asked Ebrahim to encourage her daughter to join the group. He was not allowed to visit Homa except with the intention of bringing her to the group’s events but the father and her daughter were not willing to do so.

Once Ebrahim Khodabandeh was in Sweden, Homa was informed by her aunt Sudabeh Khodabandeh about the whereabouts of her father. She was 16 years old when her grandmother took her to Sweden to visit her father for a very short time, in the MEK’s base in Sweden.

Ebrahim was in Baghdad when he found out that the IRC office had a letter for him. He could receive the letter only after he could convince the MEK commanders. Homa had written to his father that she was going to marry and had asked him to call her. When Ebrahim could manage to call her she was married with two children. This was the consequence of a longtime challenge between the IRC and the MEK leaders who did not want Ebrahim to keep in touch with her daughter.

When Ebrahim Khodabandeh was arrested in the Syrain border, the MEK authorities contacted Homa –who had just given birth to her third baby— telling her that her father was under torture in Iran and would be executed very soon. They asked her to take part in an anti-Iran demonstration in London. They even tried defiantly to convince her to set herself on fire in front of the Iranian embassy. She finally threatened them that she would call the police.

Homa who had only visited her father for a few short times, began to take legal actions to pursue the case of her father in Evin prison via the Iranian embassy in London. A year later, she traveled to Iran together with her husband and their three children. Before her departure for Iran, the MEK authorities called her and tried to stop her from going to Iran terrifying her of the government in Tehran.

However, in Tehran, Homa visited her father in Evin prison and then she met the Judge of the case trying to help her father. After she returned to Britain, she called the MEK to tell them about the situation of her father in Iran but they never answered her call.

Homa is now 42 years old, the mother of five children. She has a good life now but her memories of childhood are not pleasant to her. She always says: “Left with no letters or phone calls, it is so hard for a girl that she does not know where her father is, what he does”. However, the harder thing was the way the MEK treated her. The MEK wanted to abuse Homa on behalf of its own interests.

Homa was lucky that her grandmother supported her raising her an independent and vigilant girl. She is a pious Musli now and the manager of the educational institute that she has established herself. Her bigger son Soleiman is a Medical student, her second son Salaheddin is a mechanical engineering student, her daughter Saleheh goes to pre university school. Ebrahim and Mohammad, both students, are her younger children.

Nejat Society

November 1, 2020 0 comments

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