After the US invasion to Iraq, he escaped from Camp Ashraf- MKO’s main headquarter led by Massoud Rajavi- and returned to Iran by the assistance of the international Red Cross. He left Iran illegally in a while and arrived in Europe via Turkey. In an interview with BBC, he said of his escape from Camp Ashraf:
It’s more than an event, I remember the way Masud separated children from their parents, the first separations contained forced divorces, the children became teams, the younger ones stayed in the organization and were grown by babysitters. Relation with parents had been nearly cut. In 1991 during the first Gulf War, Masud Rajavi abused the situation and sent all the children out of Iraq territory.
…we have gathered here to help underage people who have been brainwashed by the MKO. Even people like Turaj or Alan Mohammedi who committed suicide were sent to Iraq at the age of 13-14. We have gathered here to say that these people should talk to international organizations in a free situation. I was there and I know that the MKO puts them under pressure. These young people don’t want to stay there and I recently talked to Amir Vafa Yaghmayee- the son of Ismael Vafa Yaghmayee, member of NCRI- and he said that he is under pressure even in the US camp and he can’t speak….
Any crime can have four distinguishing characteristics. The first is totally related to the criminals and the others are based on that. The second is related to the victim of the criminals, the third relates to the defenders of human rights who have taken on the task and duty of exposing the crimes of these criminals, and the fourth relates to international public opinion and the international conscience to judge according to the findings and the reports produced by the defenders of these victims of crimes.
Many MKO members (like me and others) are the people who have had relations with the people who are now in the House of Lords. These people have had contact with the MKO/PMOI since they were young and were in the Labour Party and then they had become members of parliament, stood down and became Lords, but kept their contact….
A day after the June 28th bombing at Islamic Republic Party, Masud Rajavi’s men returned to me. I told them that I wanted to write a statement to reveal this terrorist action. They assured me that they had no interference in this one. …Before leaving Iran, we signed a contract. It was based on three principals: political pluralism, individuals’ liberty and national independence. I had presented detailed explanation for each of these principals..
..14 have returned to their countries with the cooperation of International Red CrossWhen anti-Iranian propagandas of terrorist MKO aka PMOI and other opposition groups faded and these people found the truth, they returned by their own will…At the time being, Islamic Republic has issued pardon for them and the best and safest way for saving them is Iran.
After Maryam returned to Iraq in 1997 the Rajavis imposed more radical changes to combat what Maryam called our bourgeois mind-set. Under the new rules, a gender apartheid was introduced so that men and women were physically separated. Now there were only all male units and all female units both of which had 3 or 4 women commanders. All were completely separate
…We follow two goals. One goal is to prevent abusing children and the other is to pursuit the situation of MKO defectors, now in the US camp. We want the public and Human Rights advocates and officials to hear their words. This is the aim of our gathering. ..
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At a ceremony last week, an Iranian mother hugged her son, one of 31 returning combatants who had spent time at a military camp in Iraq….More than 250 young Iranians, from a group committed to toppling Iran’s leaders(MKO), are back in Tehran..The journey of one of those sons, Hamid Khalkali, is typical: He went to Turkey five years ago for work, but ended up at a military training camp in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was recruited by the Mujahideen-e Khalq..