Special Anti-Corruption Structure of the Albanian Police (SPAK) raided the Association of the Support for the Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) and the apartments of 20 people of the Iranian members of the association. The Albanian Police detained and interrogated them on Thursday July 14th,2022. However, they were freed after ten hours without being charged with any of the alleged accusations.
As the Albanian Police and media supposed that there are suspicions that espionage activities are carried out through ASILA and under the cover of cultural exchanges, no evidence was found to accuse these former members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) of being spies.
Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, Albanian historian and journalist
Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, Albanian historian and journalist twitted a thread on the case criticizing the act of the Albanian anti-terror Police of being the puppet of the US Embassy: “The charges that SPAK has launched against Iranian defectors are all fake invented by MEK since 2018. They are accused of being spies, working with #IRGC, planning to destroy MEK / PMOI etc. The police search in homes of defectors did not find anything illegal. The latest attack that MEK is directing against defectors is coming from Albanian SPAK and antiterror police. Rajavi has accused #Iranian defectors of being spies for #Iran. SPAK which takes orders from US Embassy is following Rajavi’s orders. They raided the homes of defectors.”
ASILA members
Noticing the cult-like nature of the MEK and the part that ASILA plays to aid defectors of the cult get deradicalized and join the free society, Jazexhi writes, “Asila has been quite successful to provide a window of hope to dozen of #Iranians who want to free themselves from the PMOI cult. To stop the destruction of the cult, Rajavi has used all tricks she can.”
He concluded that the Albanian police raid on Iranian defectors’ homes is “a great failure for Maryam Rajavi & her terrorist command”. He asserts that Iranians who are hostages of the Cult of Rajavi will continue to defect and join the growing defectors in Tirana. Maryam Rajavi and her allies cannot simply jail people because they refuse terrorism of Rajavi.
Gjergji Thanasi ; Albanian journalist
Gjergji Thanasi another Albanian journalist and one of the Albanian members of ASILA also speculates that the raid on ASILA activists is because “Maryam Rajavi has panicked because every week an Iranian escape from the Manez camp.”
“The anti-terrorist police did not find anything illegal in the defectors,” Thanasi wrote in his Facebook account. “The defectors will continue their protests against the Mujahideen sect and the crimes it commits against its members and against Iran.”
MEK defectors who are now active members of ASILA including Hassan Heirani, the head of the association, have several times emphasized that their mission in the association is nor political and neither in hostility against the MEK but they aim to help those who leave the MEK’s Camp Ashraf 3 in order to build their new life outside the group.
Despite all propaganda and obstructions launched by the MEK against former members none of them have been condemned in the Albanian courts yet. This is while the MEK’s agents have been already accused of money laundering, working with drug traffickers and human smugglers.