The 37th 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 August 19th, in branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani.
Maddah, the attorney of the plaintiffs once more presented the cases of victims of the Israeli attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists. He explained that victims of the attacks are considered as victims of a collaboration between the MEK and the invading enemy and then, this is a crime according to the laws.
Nezhat Shaban Azad is the wife of Fereidoon Abbasi Davani, the nuclear scientist who was killed in June 13th attacks. She took the stand at the court and explained how her husband was killed by the explosions at that night.
According to his wife’s testimonies, Fereidoon Abbasi was thrown out in the street from the 13th floor of their residential building. A neighbor, a retired man, was also killed.
Shaban Azad told the court that her husband had survived a first Israel-MEK led attack in 2010. He noticed the magnetic bomb that a motorcycle rider placed on their car.
She said: “The first time the Zionist regime attempted to assassinate my wife (15 years ago), we filed a complaint against the Zionist regime, the MEK, and the US government because Israel had officially claimed responsibility for the assassination. At that time, our lives were severely affected, and my wife and I were forced to separate our workplaces for greater security. But this time, we were attacked in our own home. Violation of the privacy of individuals’ homes is absolutely unacceptable, and I am filing a complaint against it.”
This complaint is still ongoing and Abbasi family have not been informed of the outcome yet.
Anne Singleton, a British citizen who was a member of the MEK for 8 years, took the stand as a witness.
“I have known the MEK organization for 47 years,” she addressed the court. “I was one of its supporters for twenty years and I have been its enemy for twenty years, and I have written books about the MEK.”
“Saddam’s Private Army” and “The Life of Camp Ashraf” are two of her books on the MEK.
“I left the MEK because I realized that they were people who influenced people’s minds,” she said. “After leaving them, it took me a while to get better, and after I felt better, I created a website called Iran Interlink.”
Base on Singleton’s testimonies writing in both English and Persian on her website, her intention was to bring the social and political situation of the MEK and their destructive ideas into limelight.
About the recruitment process the MEK agents use to recruit her, Singlton said: “Their recruitment and brainwashing process started in such a way that they sent messages and constantly asked me to do tasks so that I didn’t have time to think and figure out where I was going and what I was doing. Until in 1992 they asked me to come to Iraq for military training.”
She added: “For 10 years I had a different life. In one aspect I was a British person with a job, family and friends and in another aspect I was addicted to the MEK, I did whatever they wanted and I couldn’t separate myself from them and after 10 years in 1989 I had a personal crisis and in this personal crisis I had to choose one and I chose the MEK, the MEK separated me from my family and I had no contact with my family anymore.”
Singlton explained why the MEK recruits foreign nationals: “I was in the MEK’s team house in London and also in their team house in Sweden. They took me to Iraq for three months. They said that was for military training, but they didn’t use me as a trained person. They had people more trained than me for their operations. Instead, they used me as a passport. I say passport because Saddam paid them money for each passport.”
Ann Singleton (Ann Khodabandeh) married another MEK defector, Massoud Khodabandeh in Londen. Massoud Khodabandeh has previously attended the trail of the MEK and its leaders.
The next court session will be held on September 4th, 2025.
