Reports

The 35th 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 June 10th, in branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani.

At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Dehghani explained about the testimonies made by arrested agents of the MEK who committed terrorist attacks in the early years of the 1980s. According to the testimonies of certain MEK agents, named Sohrab Sepehri, Hossein Sheikholhokama, Abbas Sahraiee and abdolkarim Moazez, the leaders of the group had ordered them to kill any individual who seemed to be a sympathizer of the Islamic Republic.

They testified that the murders were usually accomplished based on the beard of the victim or the portrait of ayatollah Khomeini on the wall of his shop. This way, the MEK, as the first defendant of the court, has killed a large number of civilians in Iran.

Maddah, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, asked some of family members of the victims of a terrorist attack, called Qadikalah incident, and a survivor of the attack to take the stand and deliver their testimonies.

Ali Haghpanah, the brother of Mohammad Ali Haghpanah asked the court to bring the MEK to justice for the assassination of his brother. Qiaseddin Mozaffari, the son of Hossein Mozaffari also lost his father in Qadikalah terrorist attack. The MEK agents killed the two men in the road from Qaemshahr to Qadikalah.

Einollah Delpisheh is also a survivor of Qadikalah incident who took the stand to testify about the terrorist attack. He and Mozaffari were teachers; they had no political position in the government.

Abbas Ali Kamalpour Bandari was also a victim of the MEK terror teams. He was only 17 when he was killed by the MEK terrorist. His brother, HosseinAli attended the court to ask for punishment of the group and its leaders.

The wife and children of Yunes Taheri also demanded blood money and severe punishment from the court for the first accused of the court, the legal entity of the MEK. Taheri’s wife told the court that the body of her husband was never found. Yunes Taheri was a member of Iranian revolutionary guard.

Another action of the MEK was the hijacking of a Phantom F-14 fighter jet, which was carried out by agents of the group. This case was reviewed in the 35^th session too.

The legal representative of the Islamic Republic Army وIn the previous session, he explained three cases of military plane hijackings carried out by the Mujahedin. In this session, he also explained one of these plane hijackings and the pilots who hijacked the plane with the collusion of the MEK and transferred military information. He submitted the documents to the court.

The next court session will be held on June 28^th, 2025.

The 31st 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.

Massoud Madah, the Plaintiffs’ lawyer emphasized on the fact that the court is not dealing with a simple criminal group. “We are dealing with an organized terrorist group that has committed acts with the support of intelligence services,” he said. Remarking Massoud Rajavi’s meeting with Taher Jalil Haboush, the head of the Iraqi intelligence service, in 1999, the lawyer mentioned that Rajavi explicitly stated in that meeting that he was in contact with the American, British, and French intelligence services.

According to Maddah, Based on what is stated in the indictment, the fifth reason for the MEK being a terrorist organization is that it was on the list of terrorist organizations by the United States until 2012 and was recognized as a terrorist organization by the European Union in 2005. Also, Maryam Qajar Azdanloo (Maryam Rajavi) was arrested on June 17, 2003, along with 165 leaders of the organization, by the anti-terrorist police in France for attacking the Iranian embassy and assassinating 25 defectors of the group.

The lawyer stated that from the perspective of criminology and the characteristics that have been declared for terrorist organizations, the organization should be included in the list of terrorist groups. Bombings, intimidation, public unrest, guerrilla attacks, torture, coups, mass murder and genocide, kidnappings and hijackings are just a few of the crimes committed by the MEK.

“This terrorist group tortured and martyred children from 18 months old to young students and students in the most heinous way possible,” he added. “No ethnicity or religion in this country has been safe from the actions and crimes of the MEK, and as long as the legal personality of this organization is established, these crimes will continue. Accordingly, my clients demand the dismissal of the MEK as a legal entity and that the extradition of its criminals and their punishment.”

During the court session, Hossein Sobhaninia, a member of the central office of the Islamic Republic Party and a witness of the bombing of the Party’s building, took the stand and, after taking the oath, stated:

“I remember that Mohammad Reza Kolahi (MEK member) was present that night in the space between the prayer place and the meeting hall, inviting and encouraging people to attend the hall. Members of this meeting usually attended with prior invitations, and since at that time most of the members of parliament were members of the Republican Party, in this incident 27 members of parliament, four government ministers, a number of deputy ministers, and a group of personalities and central members of the Islamic Republic Party were killed.”

Sobhaninia presented his testimonies about the killed and injured victims of the incident: “It took an hour for the basic facilities to arrive. They wanted to remove the roof with a crane, which increased the subsidence. Some of the victims were thrown out of the hall window and their bodies were outside the hall, including Ejei, the representative of Isfahan Derakhshan was also next to the window. An attempt was made to dig out the part where Ayatollah Beheshti was sitting, but with great difficulty his body came out, which was burned. These bodies were taken to the hospital and the others were pulled out of the rubble.”

Elaheh Pirouzfar, the lawyer for defendants in rows 88 to 107 of the case said: “Mr. Sobhaninia’s statement is consistent with the indictment. He says that the bombing was not the work of one person, and I confirm this because the bombing was next to the pillars (contrary to the previous witness’s statements). I want this matter to be explained.”

The judge said: “We invited a bomb expert to the court session for this matter, and in the 28th session, they announced that there were two bombs in the columns and one bomb next to Shahid Beheshti’s table. In fact, one of these statements, that there was a bomb next to Shahid Beheshti’s table, is consistent with the expert’s opinion, and the other opinion, that the bomb was next to the columns, is also consistent with part of the expert’s opinion. Each witness testified to the extent of his knowledge.”

The judge added: “In previous hearings, the bomb expert raised a point in court about the technology used to make this bomb, which has so far been immune from objection by the defendants’ lawyers. According to this expert’s opinion, making and placing such a bomb with this technology was not the work of anyone inside Iran; that is, such a bomb could not have been made and designed inside the country under those conditions, and the bomb in question was foreign.”

Massoud Maddah, the lawyer who filed the case, said: “The MEK had 7 cases of plane hijackings, one of which was on June 28th, 1983, when they hijacked a plane with 371 passengers and 19 crew members that was traveling from Shiraz to Tehran. The plane first landed in Kuwait and then was taken to France to Massoud Rajavi. A widespread action against the country’s internal and external security, of which the plane hijacking is a part.”

Ali Akbar, the legal representative of Iran Air, then took the stand and said: “The duty of Iran Air is to supervise the technical and operational performance of airlines. The plane that was hijacked by the MEK in 1983 belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main victim and plaintiff is Iran Air Company.”

The legal representative of Iran Air explained that the hijacking was registered by EKO and even with the help of EKO the plane was returned to the country. According to the case documents, with the coordination made, the plane was delivered to our country’s embassy two days later. According to Ali Akbar Iran Air is suing the MEK for this hijacking and requested the court to consider the severest punishment for the leaders of the group and the perpetrators of the hijacking.

Tohidi, a PhD in international law and university professor, explains the rules governing hijacking from an international perspective. He said, “Air piracy and hijacking are carried out for personal or specific vengeful purposes, such as demanding the release of specific prisoners or causing social unrest, and sometimes using aircraft as a weapon to target specific areas and buildings.”

The Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft was adopted in 1970, and the discussion of hijacking was considered here, and an attempt was made to emphasize facilitating cooperation between states in preventing impunity for those who disrupt aviation security. Therefore, the 1970 Convention states several basic points. The first point is that Article 2 of it states that the contracting states have committed to punishing this crime severely. The second point is that Article 3, paragraph 3 of this Convention states that this Convention applies to both domestic and international flights, and the flight that the MEK hijacked was from Shiraz to Tehran and is covered by this Convention, according to Tohidi.

The judge concluded: “In view of the receipt of the plaintiff’s lawyer’s bill and the issued indictment, as well as the request for a postponement from Iran Air and the letter that the family of the complainant submitted to the court, the court accepts the Iran Air’s postponement to submit a complaint to the court in this regard and gives the Civil Aviation Organization this deadline for 10 days. In view of the statements of the legal representative that actions have been taken regarding the allegations that occurred during his time, the documentation must be submitted to the court, therefore, the Civil Aviation Organization is given a 10-day postponement within this period. Otherwise, due to the omission of the act, the court will refer the matter to the Tehran General Prosecutor’s Office in accordance with Article 341 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The next court session will be held on April 28, 2025.”

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.”

The 26th court session to investigate the charges against 104 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) the nature of this organization as a legal entity, was held publicly on Tuesday (January 8) in Branch 11 of the Criminal Court of a Tehran province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani and court advisors Morteza Turk and Amin Nasseri, in the presence of a minister representing the prosecutor, the families of the victims and their lawyers, as well as the lawyers of the defendants.

Following the previous session, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Kazemi, discussed the operations carried out by the MEK, which included the torture and killing of a number of civilians. The lawyer asked the eyewitness to take the stand and testify about the victims and the accused ones of this crime.

Akbar Kabiri, one of the witnesses in this trial, after taking the oath said, “Taleb Taheri was a teenager, about 17 years old. He was short, had no features, and was very lively and active.”

According to his testimonies Khosro Zandi was the MEK agent who was charged with disappearing the bodies of the three killed victims of the Engineering Operation including Taleb. “There is a video of the discovery of the bodies of these three victims at the location announced by Khosrow Zandi,” he said.

Addressing the first defendant, the legal entity of the MEK and 104 other defendants in the case, the judge said: “International treaties on combating terrorism allow countries where terrorist acts have taken place to have their domestic courts have the authority to hear these charges and crimes.” This public trial is being held in the presence of members of the media and news agencies, and it was revealed that the organization and some of the defendants were fully aware of the trial and are commenting on it.”

He added, “I once again announce to Massoud Rajavi and the other defendants in the 26th session of the court, today we are hearing the charge of torturing a 17-year-old teenager. Your lawyers are present in court.”

The plaintiffs’ Lawyer said: “The legislator has criminalized four instances of forming, planning, organizing, and managing a criminal group. According to legal rules, a person who leads another person to commit a crime is considered an accessory to a crime. In other words, leadership of a criminal group is a specific crime; if the crime is committed by members of the group and the person who formed the group is prosecuted as leadership.”

A former member of the MEK, Jalilian also testified, he regarded Massoud Rajavi as the main person to order the atrocities the group agents committed. He told the court, “If someone in the MEK wants to drink water, it is impossible for Rajavi not to know. He issued his orders throughout the organization. They have a trained organizational cadre. It was not like they tortured someone and Massoud Rajavi was unaware.”

The next session of the court hearings to investigate the crimes of the MEK and its leaders will be held on January 21.