The 39th 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 September 23rd, in branch 11 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani.
At the beginning of the hearing, the judge asked the plaintiffs’ lawyer to take the stand and make his statement. Massoud Maddah said: The endless killing of children, men, women, young and old, and civilians is just a small part of the brutal crimes committed by mercenaries who were deceived by the leaders of this terrorist group. If we examine the history of the last few hundred years of Iran, we have never had mercenaries fighting for a foreign enemy and against the Iranian people, committing all kinds of brutal crimes and taking pride in these crimes, and worse, calling these crimes liberation and freedom-seeking.
Maddah reminded: The MKO had three types of cooperation with the Iraqi Baath regime during the 8-year imposed war on Iran. Military cooperation, espionage and intelligence cooperation, and supervision in the killing of the Iranian people. One of the separated members of this group, who is also mentioned on page 249 of the indictment, states that in explaining the world, Massoud Rajavi named Saddam and the sheikhdoms of the region as dictators and reactionaries of the region and called them aggressors, but when he issued a joint statement with Tariq Aziz [Saddam Hussein’s Minister], the analysis and theory changed. This was an example of Massoud Rajavi’s contradictory behavior.
The lawyer stated that numerous documents indicate that Massoud Rajavi had effective cooperation with the Iraqi Baath regime; while he considered this regime as reactionary and dictatorial. “This shows that this person’s entire behavior is deception, deceit, and contradiction,” he added.
Maddah told the court: The MEK claim to be liberating while they have killed, imprisoned, tortured, bombed, and even murdered two-year-old and one-year-old and eight-month-old children in Iran. Are they liberators or a terrorist group? In international law, the characteristics of a liberation movement or army include the independence of the country, the support of the people, and targeting legitimate targets. Not entering a house, martyring a two-year-old child, and then killing his parents. Liberation movements and armies observe international law and the rules of war.
He asked the court to refer the case to an international law expert, so that the issue can be clarified clearly.
Fathollah Eskandari former member of the MEK took the stand as an informed person. In Rajavi’s prison and organization, torture, inhumane killings, and severe mental and physical pressure were applied,” he told the court. “Many members were subjected to severe pressure.”
Eskandari said: “I worked in the repair shop of the MEK’s camp. Whenever we begged them to leave the group, it was as if they were giving us a choice between death and joining them: either get killed or leave!”
Samad Eskandari, another defector of the MEK who appeared at the stand told the court: On various occasions and in collective meetings, we heard Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the MEK, confess many times that he had received all the war equipment, tanks, cannons and other military equipment from the Iraqi army. In numerous joint meetings with Saddam Hussein, Rajavi convinced him to donate military equipment and financial aids.
“The MEK acted as the fifth column of the Iraqi army in operations against the Iranian forces and were in fact at his disposal like a special unit of Saddam’s army,” stated Samad Eskandari.
Hadi Shabani was also a defector of the Cult of Rajavi who spoke at the court. He recounted the MEK operation called Chelcheragh that was logistically sponsored by Iraqi army. “Because Iranian scouts were aware of us, we worked at night and stayed in the trenches that belonged to the Iraqi forces during the day,” he recalled. “The Iraqi army had given us these trenches.”
He added: By the night of the operation, we had two Russian 130 cannons and two 122 cannons, two of which were in the hands of the organization’s women and the other two were in the hands of our own forces. After Rajavi announced the operation, we were unable to fire much, because the cannons were both old and did not function well, and they went out of range very quickly. The important point is that in this operation, as the organization itself advertises and can be seen in their films, there was a lot of fire, while we ourselves knew that we did not have Katyushas or anything else. We only had four cannons. Of course, we later said that we didn’t have all these cannons and Katyushas because we hadn’t received the necessary training yet. Then they announced that these forces were the Iraqi army who had come to support us to carry out the operation, which they announced near morning had entered Mehran territory.
Then, Doost Mohammad Farhi, a defected member of the MEK, appeared on the stand as a witness and swore to tell the truth in court. He explained about Chelcheragh operation: I was also an infantryman in Operation Chelcheragh. During this operation, we were in the Mehran region for 2 days. The organization brought tanks to the Iranian border and left them at the border, and captured a number of personnel carriers and tanks inside Iran. All of these operations were with the help of Baathist forces. Baathist forces provided support from a distance. We also handed over the captured tanks to Baathist forces.
The next session of the court will be held on October 7th, 2025.