Hassan Sharqi, 67, is from Tonekabon, Gilan, Iran. Hassan was 26 years old, married and had a child when he joined the Iranian army to serve. He was a soldier in Iran-Iraq war when he was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces in 1980. He was kept as a POW in Iraqi jail, for nine years.
In 1989, after the ceasefire between the two countries, the POWs have not been exchanged yet. It was an opportunity for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) to recruit Iranian prisoners who were under severe pressure in the Iraqi camps.
Hassan Sharqi was deceived by the MEK recruiters to join the group. He was moved to the MEK’s Camp Ashraf. Years later, in 2012, he could manage to leave the group after 23 years of imprisonment in the MEK which was “a more horrible imprisonment than the one in the Iraqi camps”, as he says. He returned his home town but his wife had married another man.
“I am a victim of Rajavi’s violence,” he says. “I am ready to testify against Rajavi in any court.”