Page 99 – Nejat Society

Former child soldier: Maryam and Massoud Rajavi must be tried

Amir Yaghmai, former child soldier asked for the trial of the leaders of the Mujahedin Khalq.

Amir is one of the first former child soldiers of the MEK who spoke out about his experience of living under the abusive system of the Cult of Rajavi. Very soon, a picture of his ID card was published on the MEK-run websites labeling him as the agent f the Iranian Intelligence. In 2021, two other MEK-born children who are now in their thirties spoke out.

Amir Vafa Yaghmaee

Hanif Azizi, a Swedish policeman now, published his autobiography, “Suburban snout” in Swedish recounting his childhood in the MEK’s military camps. Amin Golmaryami was the third child soldier who was officially brought to the lime light of the Western media. He was interviewed by the German newspaper Die Zeit. Their revelations on the horrific life of children in the Cult of Rajavi were eventually translated to Persian. The expectable consequence for both of them was the label of being mercenaries of the Iranian intelligence by the MEK propaganda.

The unreceptive response of the MEK leaders to their own children seeing them in the side of their enemy created a movement among other former child soldiers to speak out. In two sessions of speaking in a Club House room hosted by Amir Yaghmai, a large number of MEK’s former child soldiers confirmed the testimonies made by Amir Yaghmai, Hanif Azizi and Amin Golmaryami. This time all of the speakers of the room were labeled as the agents of the Iranian Intelligence by the MEK!

In an action to inform more people about the truth, Amir Yaghmai published the audio files of ten hours of spoken testimonies made by former child soldiers of the MEK in his You Tube channel. In the caption, he stated, “our accounts of living in the MEK go back to 15 to 20 years ago but this does not diminish the responsibility for the crimes of the group committed against us, former child soldiers.”

It is just a matter of time. Amir Yaghmai refers to worldwide examples like Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary, who in September 2021 was accused by a German court of contributing to the murder of more than 11000 people through her work at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945. Prosecutors argued that she was part of the apparatus that helped the Nazi camp function more than 75 years ago.

“We want the leaders of the MEK, Massoud Rajavi who is 73 years old and his wife Maryam Rajavi who is 68 now, to be tried in an international justice court for the rights of ours that they violated.” Amir states.
As MEK’s child soldiers, Amir and his friends are witnesses and victims of the atrocities and harassments committed by the group commanders. “We experienced a lot of hardship during our childhood in the MEK,” he writes. “A large number of us were sexually abused by the group members. We will present all of our testimonies in a proper place as two of my friends courageously testified, in the previous room in Club House, how they were sexually harassed at Camp Ashraf.”

January 23, 2022 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 307

++ News emerged that a data leak in Albania led the Rama government to sign a memorandum of understanding with an American company to “strengthen cyber security and increase the digital infrastructure”. The company, Jones Group International, is led by General James Logan Jones Jr, “a four-star General of the United States Navy Corps, former National Security Adviser, Commander of the Marine Corps, Commander of the US European Command, Supreme Allied Commander Europe”. This is the same General Jones who in November 2019 visited Maryam Rajavi in Ashraf 3 in Manez to support her regime change agenda. This knowledge led to a series of comments from Albanians who wonder how private their personal details will be once Jones gets hold of them.

The MEK, of course, is not in Albania to directly oppose the Iranian regime – that would be a ludicrous conclusion for anyone to make. Instead, it acts as a propaganda and intelligence tool for the anti-Iran coalition which includes the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The MEK is well known as a conduit for Mossad intelligence – a two-way street. With Jones’ company embedded in the security infrastructure and the corrupting, criminal MEK acting with impunity in Albania, who knows what real threat there may be to national security in that country.

What guarantee does Albania have that general Jones will not share Albania’s sensitive information with the Iranian mojaheden? pic.twitter.com/OSP2wqo4rE

— Olsi Jazexhi (@OlsiJ) January 11, 2022

++ Saber from Tabriz answered an article by Iran-Efshagar, an MEK website built to attack critics and ex-members. The article claims that the name ‘Rajavi Cult’ was invented by Iranian intelligence to discredit Rajavi and is not true. Saber accepts that this name should not be used. Instead, he says, the name ‘Rajavi’s Destructive Cult’ is the correct terminology. He explains that only destructive cults do what Rajavi does – destroy their members.

++ Hamed Sarafpour, Iran-Interlink, wrote about MEK Money Laundering after Rajavi announced the “week of financial support”, a week when members are supposed to go all out to collect financial support for her cult. Every year she does this so that she can claim that the MEK is financed through people’s money. Sarafpour exposes the history of money laundry by the MEK from the deceptive Iran Aid bogus charity to the 3 tons of gold and food for oil, etc to the payments made to John Bolton, the Vox Party, and more. He also publishes the amount of money Maryam spends on makeup and shoes and decoration for her meetings and compares this with the situation of ordinary members – referring to modern slavery to explain why the money does not reach the members.

++ Massoud Khodabandeh concluded the 9th hour-long podcast interviews with Bakhshali Alizadeh, a former MEK member now living in Iran with his family. In the series, Alizadeh describes how he went to the front line in the Iran-Iraq war as a conscript and was captured and imprisoned as a POW in Saddam’s camps. He talks about conditions in the camp and how he and others were given to Rajavi contrary to international law. He describes the situation of the MEK camps – forced marriages, forced divorces, the fall of Saddam, the Americans disarming the MEK, and the approach of the new Iraqi government. Alizadeh talks about internal conflicts inside the camp, why Rajavi resisted leaving Camp Ashraf, the transfer to Camp Liberty and how UNAMI behaved inside Liberty. Alizadeh was among those members transferred to Albania. Once there he had the opportunity to leave the MEK. This began another journey – from Albania to Germany where he was granted refugee status. He explains why he gave this up and returned to Iran where he got married and had a baby. In the concluding podcast Alizadeh touched on the importance of family in restoring his life – his father had previously travelled to the camp in Iraq to try to contact his son. He explains that in order to leave point A you need a point B to go to. The MEK cult, protected by benefactors, is denying people the point B, i.e. contact with family and society to prevent them leaving.

++ Ex members broadcast a touching video on YouTube of former MEK member Parviz Heydarian saying farewell to his friends as he returns to Iran from Albania. Heydarian was supported by the recently established ASILA association. The film shows Heydarian with other former members, who all look happy, healthy and relaxed in their new lives. The MEK have been on overdrive to denounce them all as agents of the Iranian regime. The reality is that both ASILA in Albania and Nejat Society in Iran are legally registered in their respective countries where they pay taxes and obey the laws. Unlike the MEK which has never registered anywhere, does not pay any taxes and certainly does not obey any laws.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi for Nejat Society writes about the MEK’s constant and futile habit of labelling all its critics as ‘agents of the Intelligence Ministry of Iran’. Parsi identifies three main groups which the MEK regards as enemies: former members, families of members and the child soldiers made to join MEK’s army in Iraq. The common characteristics linking these groups is their scathing criticism of the MEK and revelations of horrendous abuses and crimes. The MEK also singles out ASILA in Albania and Nejat Society in Iran to attack as agents. The simple reason is that these organisations effectively and persistently help and support all those groups.

++ Nejat Society reveals that the MEK’s policy of recruiting child soldiers has been known about in western political circles for some time. In a report on Iran published by the UK Home Office Border and Immigration Agency, it is stated: “According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 ‘The MeK reportedly recruited members from the USA, Europe and Iraqi prisoner of war camps and jails. Children were said to be among MeK members in Ashraf camp, including 17-year-old Majid Amini who ‘was recruited to join the MeK in Tehran with promises of completing two school grades in one year and gaining a place in college’, according to his parents. There were reports that the MeK recruited children from Sweden.”

++ A Letter was sent from Nejat Society CEO Ebrahim Khodabandeh to the ASILA President outlining the problem that families have in gaining visas to visit Albania and seek out contact with their loved ones incarcerated in camp Ashraf 3 in Manez as modern slaves. The letter asks ASILA to petition the authorities to ignore Maryam Rajavi’s deceptive lies and grant the human rights of MEK members and their families.

++ Habilian Association in Iran published a second volume of its book ‘Mujahedin-e Khalq Uncovered 2, The Terrorist Group in the Eyes of International Media’. After Trump’s presidency ended, Habilian compiled media reports to update the latest narrative from western media viz a viz the MEK. “The book, published in 830 pages, vividly demonstrates that the MEK is still a highly dubious and notorious group in the West and despite the efforts to present a different image of itself among Westerners, it has not attained much success.”

++ Anne Khodabandeh in Iran-Interlink exposes the MEK’s deceptive recruitment of vulnerable Iranian asylum seekers arriving in Albania. The MEK has imposed its personnel on the police by offering to identify the Iranians among the refugees. Once recruited, they are taken to MEK camps and detained there as modern slaves. According to Khodabandeh, this practice of deceptively exploiting Iranian refugees has been going on for decades. This time, however, the Albanian authorities have a duty to detect and prevent it rather than facilitate it.

++ Geopolitica published an interview Jack Turner made with Dr Haniyeh Tarkian, an Italian Islamic-Studies researcher and geopolitical analyst, about different aspects of the MEK’s activities. Interestingly, the conversation continually returned to the issue of western double standards and hypocrisy in relation to the MEK over every issue.

++ Atefeh Nadilian, human rights lawyer, writing for Nejat Society reveals that the MEK’s sensitivity toward families has become worse in recent times. The MEK has tried to depict the families as dangerous agents of the Iranian regime. But this has backfired as most observers and analysts have realised that the MEK’s main enemy are elderly parents and siblings of the entrapped members languishing in Camp Ashraf 3.

January 22, 2022

January 23, 2022 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Things are changing for the better, Thanasi told Nejat families

In a video link between a number of Nejat families whose loves ones are taken as hostages in the group and ASILA members in Albania, Mr. Thanasi told families:” things are changing for the better.

Referring to the Camp Ashraf 3 residents, Thanasi said:” there is hope. There is an alternative for these inmates. The alternative is to have a normal life in Tirana.
He reiterated that the new legislation helps these people from Hassan Heirani to the last inmate of Ashraf 3 to find a job in Albania.

Referring to the harsh conditions of living in the closed camp of the MEK, Thanasi said to the families that we should help the MEK members to release themselves, otherwise the alternative for them would be to stay at Ashraf and die because of Covid 19. “I have published a lot of photos of graves of the people died in Ashraf Camp because of lack of medical helps.”
Gjergji Thanasi is an Albanian a journalist and a member of ASILA Association.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Thanasi-Families-202201.mp4

January 20, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The MEK failure in struggle leads to labeling critics as IRI’s agents

These three people are labeled as agents of the Intelligence Ministry of the Iranian government by the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK):
Parviz Heidarzadeh, a former member of the MEK who left the group in 2016. He had been imprisoned by the MEK when he was a soldier in Iran-Iraq war, in 1987. After he denounced the MEK, he lived a free life in Albania for 5 years. Finally, a few days ago, he returned to Iran to join his family after 35 years of separation.

Parviz Heidarzadeh to repatriate after 35 years

Soraya Abdollahi, mother of Amir Aslan Hassanzadeh a member of the MEK. Her son was recruited by the MEK in Turkey. Soraya has been taking many legal actions in order to visit her son in the MEK. She was never allowed by the MEK to contact him in any forms. She is a member of Nejat Society and the head of an establishment formed by mothers of MEK members who seek to contact their children inside the Cult of Rajavi.

Soraya Abdollahi

Amin Golmaryami, a former child soldier of the MEK who was made to sign a recruitment form to join the MEK’s army in Iraq when he was only 13 years old. He was a student in Germany before he was disappeared at school and turned out to receive military trainings in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. He and his brothers left their Mujahed family behind in the MEK when the group was relocated in Albania in 2015. He exposed facts on the abusive attitudes of the MEK commanders in an interview with a German newspaper in October 2021. His revelations encouraged other former MEK child soldiers speak out in Club House.

Amin Golmaryami

These three people are the icons of three groups who are accused by the MEK of working for the enemy, the Iranian government. What makes these three people to be the target of the MEK’s propaganda in the same way?
As a matter of fact, they all denounce the MEK and ask its leaders to be responsive to their critics. But the MEK leaders particularly Massoud Rajavi has never been open to critics. Moreover, critics who might later become defectors should be punished according to the rulings of Rajavi. No matter the defector is a forced recruit like Parviz and many others or a child soldier from Mujahed parents like Amin who were coerced to join the MEK’s army.

Pedram is Amin’s friend, a former child soldier of the MEK too. Speaking in Club House, he argues that the MEK has failed to win its struggle against the Iranian government so it has nothing to do except projecting its failures on to its critics even if they are their own children, from their own DNA. “What is the MEK doing in Albania now,” asks Pedram. “Absolutely nothing. Their army does nothing. The only thing they can do is to accuse us of being mercenaries. The MEK has to realize that all critics are not mercenaries. As a political movement, the MEK has to respond to its criticizers.”

Actually, Pedram is right but he fails to assert that the MEK is not a political movement. It is a destructive cult with the methodology of destructive cults. In all destructive cults around the world, you cannot question the guru. You are not allowed to leave the group; you are not allowed to contact your family and many other suppressive methods that the cult leaders use to keep members in.

Once a defector can manage to leave the Cult of Rajavi, he or she becomes a mercenary. Once a family member seeks to meet his or her loved one, he or she turns into the agent of the IRI.

Today, the MEK propaganda targets Nejat Society because it is the body to support families of MEK members. The group also endeavors to obstruct the activities of the newly established association for the support of the Iranians living in Albania, ASILA. And, it does not hesitate to accuse the MEK-born children of Mujahed parents who just seek to enlighten the public opinion about the threats of Rajavi’s destructive cult.
The face of every person under these three categories are circled in red, captioned as agents of the Iranian intelligence by the propaganda machine of the Cult of Rajavi.

Mazda Parsi

January 18, 2022 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Letter of the CEO of Nejat Society in Iran to the President of ASILA in Albania

Mr. Dashamir Mersuli
President of ASILA
Tirana, Albania

Dear Sir,
Nejat Society is a campaigning human rights NGO with branches all over Iran. It is supported by former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MeK, MKO, PMOI, NLA, and NCRI) and the estranged families of current members who reside in the MEK camp in Manez, Albania called Ashraf 3. Our aim is to secure the human rights of the members of the MEK, particularity their right to contact their families. I am writing on behalf of these families to draw your attention to some very grave violations of these basic human rights.
In 2016, under a flawed agreement struck between the US, Albania, the UNHCR in Geneva and the MeK, the UNHCR facilitated the transfer of the entire MEK organization (known as Saddam’s Private Army) to Albania from Iraq. This was achieved by moving just over 2000 MEK members to Tirana without their informed consent and without identity or travel documents.

The Obama administration’s policy at that time was to de-radicalize the members and distribute them among other European countries. This policy changed under the Trump administration allowing the MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi, to isolate and control the members in a closed camp where they have been set to work in a click farm propagating propaganda and misinformation against Iran.

Experts in cultic abuse identify the MEK as a destructive mind control cult which uses psychological manipulation and coercive control to brainwash members. This involves abuses of their most basic human rights including preventing contact with the outside world, particularity family and friends. The members are forbidden from marrying and forming a family, they do not receive salaries for their work and they are prevented from freely leaving the cult. Members of the MeK are living in conditions of modern slavery, yet the Albanian authorities – police, security, public health officials, etc – have no jurisdiction inside the camp. This is surely unacceptable for the national interests of Albania.

On first arriving in Albania, before being incarcerated in the camp, hundreds of members were able to leave the organization and try to live independently. Unfortunately, under the aforementioned agreement all the MEK members were to be supported by the organization. This meant that those who left were stranded without identity papers and no means to support themselves. As an indication of their desperation to escape the cult, members continue to leave under these conditions.

For this reason, the families of these stranded former members were delighted that you and your colleagues have established the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) to help these vulnerable individuals. We are also hopeful that we can support your work with our own efforts. As you are no doubt aware, many families have applied for visas to visit their loved ones in Albania. Unfortunately, the Albanian authorities have succumbed to the lies and deception of Maryam Rajavi who claims these families pose a security risk to her members and have refused to issue visas even to the elderly parents of some members. However, Rajavi’s objection to family visits is not made on the basis of security. Family contact has been banned for decades in the MEK because it breaks the mental and emotional isolation needed for brainwashing.

This is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of the members and their families. And as far as the families are concerned, the Albanian government has a share in this violation of human rights by supporting the MEK and allowing it to act with impunity against the members. Thousands of letters and emails from the families to the Albanian authorities requesting contact with their loved ones during all these years have gone unanswered.
I urge you, as president of ASILA, to raise this issue with the Albanian authorities and demand answers. Why are members of the MEK denied contact and visit with their families? Why does the government not issue visas for the families of the members so that they can travel to Albania and visit their loved ones after decades? Why do the Albanian authorities have no control over what is happening inside the MEK camp?

We look forward to hearing from you and anticipate a positive outcome for the families and the MEK members.

Yours Sincerely,
Ebrahim Khodabandeh
CEO, Nejat Society

January 17, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Marriage and Family Formation: Unacknowledged Rights in MEK Cult

A website affiliated with ex-MEK members wrote about the defection of two members from the group’s base in Tirana, Albania.

Only three days had elapsed since defecting from the group when Bijan Khademi and Sanaz Bazzazian decided to unite in marriage and start a family, which is a remarkable event.

Sanaz Bazazian and Bijan Khademi got married in Albania after separating from the Mujahedin-e Khalq

To us, two people becoming man and wife may not be a surprising matter. However, when it comes to cults where members are deprived of the right to create families, the issue becomes much more noticeable. For over three decades, by order of the cult’s leader, Rajavi, members have been prohibited from establishing families and even worse, formerly married couples were forced to split up and their children were separated from them in the 1980s.

Since 2003, there has been a growing trend in defecting from this cult with majority of members leaving this violent group for emotional and sentimental reasons in order to reunite with their families.

Widely acknowledged by ex-members, sexual desires are completely suppressed in the group, and even in general meetings, members are required to report their erotic fantasies to their superintendent on a daily basis.

The tendency to get married and form a family is one of the most basic human needs and this issue is one of the major criticisms the group constantly faces for which, of course, has not provided any response so far.

There are numerous women approaching middle age in this cult. Marriage and motherhood are their rights. Each and every single cult-oppressed individuals must be given voice.

by Reza Alghurabi

January 16, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Parvis Heidarzadeh to repatiate after 35 years

Former members of the Mujahedin Khalq (the MEK) celebrated the return of Parvis Heidarzadeh from Albania to Iran.
Yesterday, former members of the MEK gathered together to hold a good good-bye party for one of their peers, Parviz Heidarzadeh who was going to repatriate after 35 years. Then, they accompanied him to Tirana airport.
Several ex-members of the Cult of Rajavi published the photos of their gathering to accompany Heidarzadeh in their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Heidarzadeh was under the ruling of the MEK cult for 30 years. He was imprisoned by the MEK agents while he was a soldier in the front of Iran-Iraq war, in 1987. He was not registered by the International Red Cross as a POW so he was kept in the MEK’s modern slavery until 2015 when the group was relocated in Albania. He formally declared his defection from the group in 2016 .

January 15, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Home Office documented case of child soldiers of the MEK

Recent testimonies of former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) in western newspapers and eventually in the social media, brought the case of MEK’s child soldiers to light. However, recruiting child soldiers has been a longstanding tactic in half a century history of the group. The fact was partly documented by the Home Office of the United Kingdom, in 2007.

Even before its militarization and the foundation of the group’s so-called National Liberation army, aka Saddam’s Private army in Iraq, the MEK leaders were never overly concerned with the age of their followers. Before the 1979 revolution, when the MEK conducted an underground struggle against the shah’s regime, many of its members were teenage girls and boys that had been drawn to a “modern Islam” as articulated by the organization. This Islam was a reinterpretation of the religion in mostly Marxist terms. Many of these under-18 believers were dispatched to fight against the Islamic Republic. An unknown number of them were killed.
During the late 1990s, child soldiers of the NLA were recruited from Europe and North America where they had been smuggled to in 1991 under the order of Massoud Rajavi.

In the chapter about the Mujahedin Khalq as an Iranian opposition group, the British report on Iran published by Border and Immigration Agency of the Home Office, on May 4th, 2007 reads:
“According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 “The MeK reportedly recruited members from the USA, Europe and Iraqi prisoner of war camps and jails. Children were said to be among MeK members in Ashraf camp, including 17-year-old Majid Amini who ‘was recruited to join the MeK in Tehran with promises of completing two school grades in one year and gaining a place in college’, according to his parents. There were reports that the MeK recruited children from Sweden.”

January 13, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Being a child perpetrator takes you higher in the hierarchy of the Cult of Rajavi

Following the revelations that have been recently made by former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq (the MKO/ MEk/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) on forced recruitment in the group’s military force, cult-like suppressions and sexual harassment and abuse by MEK commanders, other defectors spoke out to reveal evidences on child abuse cases they witnessed in the group.

Davood Baghervand is a former high-ranking member of the MEK who had previously written about child abuse in the MEK but he never stated the names of the abused child soldiers until last December that they began to speak out about their traumatic life inside the Cult of Rajavi. In order to confirm their words, Baghervand exposed the names of at least two MEK members who committed child abuse in various situations during their serving time in Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality.

As the then commander of the group, Baghervand reported what he knew about child abuse cases to the higher ranks but the perpetrators were never punished. Instead, they were granted higher positions in the hierarchy of the Cult of Rajavi. The perpetrators, such as Esmail Mortezai (nicknamed Javad Khorasan) eventually turned into the most notorious torturers of the MEK. Read Baghervand’s account about him:

MEK member Esmaeil Mortezaei aka Javad Khorasan; the group’s torturer living in Albania

Javad Khorasan from child perpetrator to torturer
After the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi fled to Iraq, Esmail Mortezai was in charge of transferring MEK members living in Khorasan, Iran, to Pakistan. So, he was called Javad Khorasan in the group. Then, he became the head of many MEK operational teams to launch terrorist attacks across the Iranian borders during the 1980s and 1990s.
When MEK sympathizers and members were smuggled from Iran to Iraq, Javad Khorasan assisted a Mujahed mother named Ebrahimipour and her two teenage daughters to settle in Pakistan in a safe house shared with him.

At the time, Baghervad was responsible for organizing the affairs of MEK agents in Pakistan. The other day, Ebrahimipour opened up to him weeping tears. She told baghervand that Javad Khorasan sexually harassed her daughters at nights and he should be executed by the group leader.
In response, Baghervand changed the safe house of the mother and her two daughters and reported sexual misconduct of Javad to the leaders in Iraq. Nothing happened after the report was sent.
After their relocation in Camp Ashraf Iraq, once more Baghervaned pursued the case of Javad Khorasan. Again, there was no feed back and Javad Khorasan was still escalating up the hierarchy.

Today Javad Khorasan is considered as one of the most violent commanders of the MEK. His name is repeatedly stated by former members as a suppressive commander of the cult in the daily self-confession and brainwashing sessions held inside the MEK base to manipulate the minds of the rank and file.
Baghervand asserts, “It is clear that Massoud Rajavi was informed of every sexual case and child abuse that were committed in the group but he used these crimes to leverage the person in order to take him completely under his control.”

January 12, 2022 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

Deceptive Recruitment in Albania – MEK Treachery Against Iranians Continues

Reports continue to emerge about malign behaviour by the MEK in Albania. In December 2021 two leading members were arrested for human trafficking and drug smuggling. The removal of an article from Alice Taylor for Exit News which reported the arrests highlighted MEK interference in Albania’s media as well as other state bodies. Exit News further reported that a foreign diplomat was notified about the case by a senior police official, but that the embassy involved failed to respond to media questions and that subsequently no prosecutions resulted. Under such conditions of foreign protection, whoever ordered the reinstatement of the Exit News article should be applauded. However, vigilance must be maintained to prevent further misdemeanours by this cultic group.

Recently it has been reported that MEK members are helping Albanian police identify Iranians among migrants arriving in the country. On the surface, this might appear a benign form of help. But deeper inspection reveals a sinister treachery.

Working with the police in itself throws up questions. Migrants seeking asylum from repressive countries have no need or benefit in lying about their origins. What role do the MEK personnel play in seeking out fraudsters? Who lies about their origins? Do the police employ the MEK members in some official capacity or are they simply there as ‘volunteers’? In this scenario, do the police ‘employ’ other ethnicities to identify their own? Once such individuals are identified, what purpose does this serve? Are the MEK personnel used as translators? Are the individuals informed that these are members of MEK? These questions should in themselves raise alarm bells about the involvement of this unethical, criminal group in a highly sensitive arena involving extremely vulnerable asylum seekers.

However, there is growing evidence that MEK are able to exploit this scenario for recruitment purposes. They will tell the migrant in Farsi that they will almost certainly be deported back to Iran unless they accept help from them. That help will be framed as facilitating their forward travel to Germany or France or the UK, etc, and that only they can prevent deportation. In this case, the target will need to stay in Camp Ashraf 3 to ensure their safety until travel arrangements can be made. In reality, no such arrangements will be made and these duped victims will be trapped inside Camp Ashraf 3 with no recourse to help or saviour.

This is exactly how MEK has behaved in the past. During the Iran Iraq war 1880-88, the MEK would visit Iranian Prisoners of War in Iraqi camps. They would promise to remove them from the appalling conditions of the camps where death, violence, torture and malnutrition were a daily risk. The PoW would be taken to Camp Ashraf and from there, the MEK would promise to facilitate their return to Iran, often via Europe. Of course, that never happened, and tens of these PoWs are still trapped in the MEK camp in Albania after three decades.

Later, as Iranians fled from the post-war revolutionary conditions imposed on them in Iran, including financial hardship, the MEK set up a recruitment department in Turkey to lure would be victims with similar deceptive promises of help. All the migrants needed to do, they were told, was come to Iraq for a while until arrangements could be made to transfer them to Europe of North America. Again, this was a deceptive trap, and these individuals were never freed from either Iraq or now Albania unless they made their own escape.

The MEK needs to recruit now in particular. From the 3800 members detained in Iraq by the US army in 2003, only around 1600 or fewer remain in Albania. The attrition of members has come about from various causes. Most are defections – tens of hundreds of people who simply could continue as members of a cult that daily destroys them and so fled the clutches of MEK. Some have died – from old age, illness, murder and suicide and of course, COVID-19. Of those who remain, the great majority are old, sick or disabled – from war and disease and neglect.

Whatever the reason, the number of members has diminished and deteriorated so much that the MEK’s sponsors and masters are beginning to find them a burden rather than an asset. Certainly, even slaves need feeding, housing and clothing if they are to perform valuable tasks. The return for this contract is barely worth it. Rajavi sells her organisation’s members for various tasks – to organise and participate in glitzy propaganda rallies, to act as click farm operatives and perhaps most sinister, to be the hiding place for several dangerous persons skilled in terrorism and prepared for suicide missions. As long as these services are in demand, Rajavi has a need for more younger healthier members. But there is a fine balance as to how necessary and cost effective this particular group is in the west’s calculations.

Whether or not the anti-Iran coalition continues to fund and exploit the MEK in its current manifestation – a slave camp in Albania – the authorities there should consider the national interests of Albania now and what its presence there means to the future of the country. There are, of course, multiple steps that can be taken toward dismantling the group. Certainly, this should start with preventing further recruitment into the camp and into slavery.

By Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh,

January 11, 2022 0 comments

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