In part 3 of the interview, Khodabandeh describes the actions taken by Nejat society in order to warn the Albanian government about the presence of the MEK in their country. He suggests that the MEK has built a state in state with its autonomy at Ashraf 3.

According to Khodabandeh the MEK, Nejat Society’s goal is to rescue people: those who are stuck at Ashraf 3, Albania and those youngsters in Iran who are at risk of being manipulated by the MEK fake accounts on social media. He warns about the risk of MEK’s cyber army on the Internet.

The post Tehran Times Interview with Ebrahim Khodabandeh- Part 3 appeared first on Nejat Society.

Each of them spent the war and the end of the ceasefire in camps and detention centers in Iraq. During those years, we, the families, were informed of the status of our captive members through letters from the International Committee of the Red Cross based in Iraq.

We would like to inform you that 37 years have passed since the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq and the government has changed in Iraq, but our family members have not yet been exchanged and returned to their families.

According to Article 118 of the Third Geneva Convention, prisoners of war must be released and returned to their country immediately after the end of active hostilities. Despite this article, our children have not been exchanged 37 years after the end of the war.

According to the information we have received from the released prisoners, we learned that our children were injected by the dictatorial regime of Saddam in a deal with the terrorist group Mujahedin-e-Khalq, which was based in Iraq at that time, and the International Red Cross was deceived into believing that they freely chose to join this group. And now, for several decades, this injustice has been done to our prisoners.

Therefore, we, their families, ask you, as the International Red Cross, whose duty is to free our captive children, to take action regarding the release of our children. It is necessary to clarify that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq organization, which has taken our children into second captivity, has left Iraq and has a camp called Ashraf 3 in Albania, so we ask you for help in freeing our loved ones.

Thank you in advance,

Names of prisoners:
Ali Sepah Amiri/Yahya Moradpour/Nowrooz Darvishi/Alireza Jafari/Ali Ashraf Maleki/Houshang Moradi/Abdolkarim Karimi/Mohammad Ali Parva/Ali Asghar Darvish Tabar/Alimorad Lotfi/Mosayeb Rashidi/Alireza Khalo Kakaei/Ali Yousefi.

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Soraya has three children. Arsalan is the second, and the one she felt the closest to. “We led a difficult life financially,” she explained. “I worked at factories and sometimes had to take night shifts. Arsalan helped me with money. After school, he worked at car repair shops, made his own allowance, and helped buy some of the things his sisters needed.”

Amir Aslan holding his little sister. He is in his late teens in this picture

Arsalan became obsessed with bodybuilding around the age of 16. He liked the sport because it helped him gain strength and could ultimately help him make money. “He had a coach who told him he needed to complete an international course. That way, he would be able to take part in tournaments and also have trainees of his own.”

In the early 2000s, Soraya’s beloved son travelled to Turkey at 20 years old to get the certification. There, he met an Iranian man who owned a factory in Germany. In reality, however, the man was an undercover Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) agent, looking to recruit new members for the terrorist organization.

“Arsalan called me one day, saying he’d changed his plans,” Soraya remembered. “He said he’d met a wealthy factory owner who offered him a well-paying job in Germany. He said the man promised he could bring me and his sisters to Europe after a few years.”

The Istanbul hotel where Arsalan was staying also housed many other Iranians. The MEK agent had strategically placed other group members around the hotel to vouch for the supposed factory owner, portraying him as a generous and philanthropic individual to those he was targeting.

Soraya sent a significant amount of money to Turkey to cover her son’s travel expenses to Germany. “The man who claimed he was taking him to Europe even spoke to me on the phone while Arsalan was still in Turkey,” she recounted. “He said the money I’d sent wasn’t enough, but that he’d still take Arsalan and deduct the remaining amount from his salary.”
Arsalan called his mother shortly after to say goodbye. Then, he vanished.
“I was worried sick every day. I couldn’t believe I had lost contact with my son so easily and had no way of reaching him. It was a living nightmare.”

It took Arsalan three years to contact his mother again. He told Soraya that he had been staying in a refugee camp in Germany where no means of communication existed, but that he was now out and about, living a good life, and training dozens of athletes at a gym he owned.
“He gave me a German number and said we could now keep in contact regularly,” Soraya stated. The number turned out to be a fake.

Four years outside hell’s gates

It wasn’t until 2008 or 2009 that Soraya discovered the truth about her son. The supposed factory owner Arsalan had met hadn’t taken him to Germany at all; instead, he’d taken him to Iraq. And not just anywhere in Iraq, but to Camp Ashraf: the desolate and secluded headquarters of the MEK, holding over 5,000 individuals. Some had entered the camp willingly, while others, like Arsalan, had been abducted and dragged there.
“I found out about my son’s fate through a distant relative of my sister-in-law, who had left the MEK and returned to Iran. He knew me, so he looked for me and let me know what had happened to Arsalan.”

Back then, Soraya didn’t know much about the MEK. She recalled hearing their name on television in the 1980s when they were carrying out terrorist attacks in Tehran, but at 18, she was too focused on her new married life to pay much attention. Even after learning that Arsalan had been taken by the MEK, she naively imagined they lived relatively normal lives within the general population. The reality of the situation only became clear when an association founded by former MEK members took her and other families whose children had been abducted to Iraq. Their goal was to shout their children’s names outside Camp Ashraf, hoping they would hear them and attempt to escape.

Former US Vice President Mike Pence addresses the MEK at the Ashraf-3 camp in Albania on June 23, 2022

“We crossed into Iraq through the Mehran border in western Iran. I can’t truly describe the emotions I felt when we reached what was essentially a desert. People pointed to these horrifying concrete blocks and said, ‘That is Ashraf.'”
As previously reported by the Tehran Times, those inside the camp were virtually cut off from the outside world. Mobile phones were forbidden, TV watching was restricted, and computer use was limited to assigned tasks. Relationships were tightly controlled as well. The group’s leader, Masoud Rajavi, forced all couples within the camp to divorce, separated children from their parents, and claimed all remaining women as his own wives. He mandated daily sessions where everyone was forced to confess their “sins” and reaffirm their loyalty to Rajavi and his agenda.

Soraya stayed outside Camp Ashraf for four years. She and other families of abductees lived in harsh conditions alongside the Iraqi Army stationed nearby. Food was scarce, clean water was unavailable, and maintaining hygiene was a constant struggle. But Soraya persevered despite the hardships. She and the others would set up loudspeakers around the camp, shouting their children’s names into microphones, hoping to reach them. Of course, none of their children were ever allowed to approach the gates. Occasionally, some of the higher-ranking MEK members would come out to hurl insults, rocks, and pieces of scrap metal at them.

Soraya was eventually forced to return to Iran for surgery after her back got severely injured in one of these attacks. By the time she returned to Iraq, her son had been moved to a new MEK camp in Albania.

“We tried to do the same thing in Albania. Back then, Albania still had an embassy in Iran. I went there with a few other mothers to apply for visas, but we were all denied without any explanation. Every time we tried after that, the result was the same,” she said, tears starting to stream down her face.

According to information obtained by the Tehran Times, the new camp in Albania—set up for the MEK with U.S. coordination—is run under the same harsh and inhumane conditions as the one in Iraq. People there are stripped of their freedom and identity, forced to work long hours every day, and face severe punishments, even death, if they don’t follow orders.

Tirana snapped its diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2022, under the alleged influence of the United States and Israel, the two biggest supporters of the MEK. Albanian police even raided Iran’s diplomatic premises when the diplomats were not in the building.

Betrayed also by international rights bodies and Western states

After no luck with the Albanian government, Soraya then hoped that involving an international body like the United Nations might help. “All I knew was that the UN was responsible for upholding human rights. So, I went to Geneva in 2016 with several families whose children were also trapped in Albania,” Soraya explained.

In Geneva, she managed to meet with Ahmad Shahid, who was the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran at the time. “I told him my story, and he assured me he would help me meet my son. He invited me to attend a meeting he was having with the MEK at the UN building. But when he saw me at the meeting, he pretended he’d never met or spoken to me before.”

Individuals walking on the streets of Ashraf-3 camp near Tirana. They are banned from exiting the site or communicating with the outside world

Her experiences with organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) followed a similar pattern. She would initially be promised assistance, only to be ignored indefinitely.

Soraya’s disappointment does not end with international organizations. While she lives every day in pain thinking of her son living in a terrorist jail, Western governments – particularly the US, UK, France, and Germany – promote the terrorist group as freedom fighters striving to bring prosperity to Iran! The MEK is routinely brought to the U.S. Congress as well as European parliaments, honored, and at times awarded.

“I understand that these governments have political goals and are using the MEK to achieve them,” Soraya stated. “But still, how can they call these people democratic? The MEK is torturing its members physically, mentally, and sexually. And now, Albania shelters them while refusing to let mothers like me see our children.”

The future, and what it could look like

An Iranian court is currently conducting public hearings on the crimes committed by the MEK over the past four decades. Since Soraya’s son did not join the group voluntarily, he, along with nearly 2,000 others associated with the organization, is not on the list of defendants. However, Soraya believes that if the doors of the MEK camp in Albania open and people get the chance to leave, even some of those who joined willingly could return to Iran and live there safely. She says she knows many former members who have already come back and are now leading normal lives, just like any other Iranian citizen.
“I doubt any other government would be this forgiving toward people who took up arms and fought against their own country,” she said, referring to the MEK’s alliance with Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s invasion of Iran in the 1980s. “Yet, based on what I’ve learned over the years, Iran’s government has pardoned many of them.”
By the end of our interview, Soraya looked tired and hopeless, a state that also characterized her 24-year search for her son. “I just want to hear my son’s voice one more time. Is that too much for a mother to ask for?”

By Sheida Sabzehvari

The post How the MEK abducted my son – and Albania looked away appeared first on Nejat Society.

The demonstration, which took place right in front of the municipality of Durres lasted for an hour. Albanian mothers who are members of Nejat Society Albania distributed flyers to the public to enlighten them about the MEK’s inhumane actions, including not allowing mothers to visit their loved ones, not even receiving letters, opposing the Red Cross in this regard.
The flyers read: “Dear people of Durres! Unfortunately, the group that has occupied part of your city has ruthlessly deprived all its members of basic human rights. One of these rights is the right to contact their families. We have a large number of letters that need to be delivered to them. Please help us in this noble and blessed work by kindly and vigilantly transferring these paper butterflies between families and their loved ones in the MEK, because family is the most precious thing in the world.”

During the rally, Nejat Society Albania also read a statement addressing the Albanian government:
“The honorable Albanian government,
We, former members of the MEK, sympathetically declare that the organization we were once members of is far from human rights, democracy, and humanity. For this reason, its presence in every country has always been accompanied by tension. The group has only been able to cooperate and accompany with a dictatorial host like Saddam Hussein.”

Nejat Society Albania warned the Albanian government and citizens that The MEK’s independent presence in Albania running a dangerous group independently from the Albanian government and isolated from the Albanian society with its own laws is certainly a terrible blow to the freedoms stipulated in Albanian laws.

The demonstrators demanded the government to treat the MEK members like all refugees in all European countries so that their trapped members enjoy the minimum freedoms of a human being today. According to them, the MEK’s independent and controlled base inside Albania is not only meaningless and annoying, but also contrary to the interests of the government and people of Albania.

The post Mothers Protest against MEK’s presence in Durres, Albania appeared first on Nejat Society.

Sheida Sabzehvari of Tehran Times introduces Nejat Society as “a Tehran-based entity with offices across Iran and Europe that assists families seeking contact with loved ones in the MEK.”

Presenting a summary of his involvement with the MEK, Khodabandeh tell Tehran Times about the group’s tactics to infiltrate the western governments, to buy the support of certain politicians and to raise funds in European cities. He also speaks of the cult-like attitudes of the group leaders who violate the basic rights of their own members.

The CEO of Nejat NGO explains about the activities of the NGO during the past two decades in order to accomplish its mission which is to aid the families of MEK members who are not allowed by the group leaders to contact their loved ones. According to Khodabandeh, cooperating with the international human rights bodies, Nejat NGO has taken a lot of actions to help families but in most cases the bodies have failed to provide adequate assistance in this regard.

The interview has been published in two parts on Tehran Times website. This is part one.

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TEHRAN – The human heart craves family. It’s crucial for our well-being, providing warmth, security, and a sense of belonging. But for a terrorist group that has isolated over 2000 people in a cloistered community at the heart of Europe, familial bonds are not a source of strength, but a threat to obedience.

Within the Ashraf camp in Albania, all that matters is how members serve the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) leadership. Family is considered a distraction from the directives of the leaders. The group ensured this belief was engraved in the hearts and minds of its members during the 1990s and 2000s by forcing all couples in the original Ashraf camp in Iraq to divorce and then sending their children away. At least 800 children were separated from their parents and relocated to Europe, without any subsequent reunification.

The MEK has also actively worked to prevent its members’ remaining family members in Iran from contacting those inside the camp. In there, MEK individuals do not have access to phones, internet, or anything else that could help them connect to their loved ones back in Iran. When they do use phones or any other device that could act as a means of communication, they are never unfettered; their every move is monitored by a higher-ranking member of the organization, according to Ebrahim Khodabandeh, a former MEK member and current CEO of the Nejat Association, a Tehran-based entity with offices across Iran and Europe that assists families seeking contact with loved ones in the MEK.

“As a former member of the terror group, I know it’s impossible for those in the Ashraf camp to contact their loved ones,” he explained. “That’s assuming they’ve even overcome the organization’s brainwashing, which tells them their families despise them and would readily hand them over to Iranian forces.” He added, “But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Families across Iran desperately seek to connect with their loved ones in the Ashraf camp. For the past two decades, I’ve received calls every day from people crying and begging me to help them find a sister, brother, father, mother, son, or daughter they haven’t heard from in years.”

Khodabandeh explained that the hopes of these families were often simple; most wanted nothing more than to know if the person who left them years ago was still alive. “The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should be the organization making this possible,” he declared. “It is with great regret that I must say they have failed to provide adequate assistance in this regard.”

The Red Cross has a mandate and a long history of helping family members find their loved ones, especially in situations of armed conflict, other situations of violence, natural disasters, and migration. This work is a core part of their humanitarian mission and is known as Restoring Family Links (RFL).

In his remarks to the Tehran Times, Khodabandeh noted that he was aware of cases where the Red Cross delivered letters from Al-Qaeda members to their families in Saudi Arabia, which made their failure in assisting the families of MEK members all the more shocking.

“I’ve lost count of the times I’ve spoken to ICRC officials in Iran, Albania, and Geneva, where their headquarters are,” he stated. “I also write to them every year on World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, May 8. Yet, I’ve never received a satisfactory explanation as to why we haven’t been able to connect these people with their family members in the Ashraf camp. They have stopped responding to me altogether in recent years.”

The Ashraf camp in Albania functions as a state within a state. Previously, aid workers attempting to deliver letters from family members in Iran or other countries were turned away at the gate and denied any contact with MEK members. “The ICRC said the organization told them the people we were trying to reach didn’t want the letters,” Khodabandeh recounted. “When I pressed them, asking how they could possibly justify that flimsy excuse, they had nothing to tell me.”

The MEK’s treatment of its members not only violates international legal standards, including UN and humanitarian laws, but also runs afoul of the Constitution of Albania. Specifically, the group’s practices within Camp Ashraf violate Articles 16, 17, 18, 19, and 21, which guarantee rights such as personal freedom and security, inviolability of domicile, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and access to information.

“The ICRC must contact the Albanian government and facilitate contact through the authorities there. I don’t understand why they aren’t assisting us with this. All I know is that based on their own mandates, it is their responsibility,” The CEO of the Nejat Association stated. “I am writing to the ICRC again this year on May 8th. I hope that they write back to me, and at least offer explanations as to why they are unable to fulfill their mandate.”

Another body that appears to be falling short on its responsibilities when it comes to the dire situation in the Ashraf Camp is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The entity recognized MEK members as refugees when they were stationed in Iraq, which obliges UNHCR workers to now personally meet with them in Albania, and ensure that these members enjoy basic human rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security of person; freedom of movement; freedom of religion; freedom of expression; and the right to education.

The Tehran Times understands that the actions of European states regarding terrorism have influenced organizations like the ICRC and the UNHCR. The West tends to categorize terrorists into ‘bad’ and ‘good’ groups. Due to its anti-Iran activities, the MEK is considered a ‘good’ terrorist organization by the West, according to information obtained by the Tehran Times. Consequently, aid organizations are often less likely to advocate for the rights of individuals linked to the MEK or investigate the group’s human rights violations.

By Sheida Sabzehvari

The post Europe’s hidden human rights crisis: The MEK’s forbidden family bonds appeared first on Nejat Society.

Mothers like Soraya Abdollahi, who are symbols of maternal love and resistance to the Rajavis’ blatant oppression, stand against the various vindictive labels the MEK puts on them and insist on their fundamental right to contact their beloved children.

On the other hand, their children are under pressure from the cult-like dictatorship of the group leaders to forget their family, to consider their family as enemies, and even to consider their mothers –who cry out with tearful eyes to see them– as mercenaries. These Children were even brought in front of the group’s TV cameras to curse their mothers.
The second group are mothers who are now in the group and whose children live in different parts of the world. In this group, there are mothers whose children are also in the MEK’s headquarters but there is no mother-child relationship between them. These children were child soldiers who were smuggled from Iraq to Europe and North America, and then smuggled back to the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq as teenagers. These mothers and their MEK children have no contact with each other except for one or two official visits a year.

After forced divorces, Mujahed mothers were forced to hand over their children to the smugglers of the MEK. Many of them are unaware of the fate of their children after long years of separation. Some have also been faced with their children’s revelations about the Cult of Rajavi. On the order of the group leaders, they have denied any maternal affection for their children. Amir Yaghmai and Mohammad Reza Torabi are among the child soldiers whose mothers have denied them in the group’s media and labeled them as mercenaries of the Iranian government!

The MEK, headed by Massoud Rajavi, is the defining line between being a mother and not being a mother. Today, if any MEK member leaves Camp Ashraf 3, they are welcomed with enthusiasm by their mothers, but each of the child soldiers who have left the group and whose mothers are still trapped in it, have been so much disliked by the side of their mothers that they could accept that there is no maternal love from them.

Mazda Parsi

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I wanted to write a few lines for the future mothers who have children captive in the Manze camp! In our current era, which is the era of technology and information, the members of the Mujahedin organization, especially in the Manze camp, are deprived of everything! They cannot even contact their families, thinking about their mother is considered a crime in the Rajavi’s organization and anyone who asks members to contact their father or mother will be punished and forced to force the members! They have no feelings in their relationships with their parents and family, and if any member remembers his mother for a moment, he must be punished in the meeting and tell why he remembered his mother!

With Respect Mirlinda ZHARRI !

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Dear Esmail
It has been almost fourteen years since you left us and joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq. Think about it! What have you gained in these years? except that you have wasted your life and youth and you have become far away from your homeland and family.

My dear Esmail
Do you remember our neighbor Sholeh Shadram (Akram)? In 1991, she left the Rajavis and moved to Turkey, and from there, she got refuge in Sweden where she started a family. Having a successful family, she has several children, and the interesting thing is that she returned to Iran and her hometown easily and without any problems. Since then, she travels to Iran and back to Sweden. She has a very good life.

Dear son,
You too can reach the free world by releasing yourself and choose a good and comfortable life. Of course, we are eager to meet and hug you in our warm arms in Iran. Come soon, I miss you so much.
Ismail, I kiss you from afar. Mother also greets you and asks you to call us with this 09919139801.

Your father
Mohammad Hassan Pour Mohammad Ali Bazkiai

The post The letter of Esmail Bazkiai’s parents to their son in the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

1.I am Mohammad Taheri, Fereydoun Taheri’s brother. My brother is in Ashraf 3 in Albania. My brother has been in the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization for almost 20 years.

2. I am Farahnaz Moradzadeh from Ilam Province, Satar Kheti’s Mother. My son is taken as a hostage in Ashraf Comp 3, in Albania. My son has been a prisoner of the destructive Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization for 21 years, and we have no information about his situation.

3. I am Sadegh Jalilian from Ilam Province, Holeylan District, Morad Jalilian’s brother. My brother is captive in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania. My brother was captured in 1988 during his military service in Mehran region in Iran-Iraq war. He has been imprisoned by the Mujahedin Khalq organization for 36 years, and there is no information about him. we do not know about his status.

4. I am Dara Namdari from Ilam Province, Holeylan Districe, Yousef Namdari’s brother. My brother is imprisoned in Ashraf 3, Albania. My brother has been a captive of the destructive cult of Mujahedin Khalq for 25 years, and we have no information about his conditions.

5. I am Rouhollah Mirzaei from Ilam province, Satar Mirzaei’s brother. My brother has been taken as a hostage by the Mujahedin-e Khalq in Camp Ashraf 3, Albania. He has been trapped by the violent Cult of Rajavi for 29 years and we have no information about him.

6. I am Khadad Barani from Ilam Province, Dehloran City, Ali Akbar Barani’s father. Ali Akbar is in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania in the mujahedin-e Khalq organization. My son left home and joined the Cult of Rajavi 18 years ago and we have no connection with him.

7. I am Mohammad Cheraghi, from Ilam Province, Badre City. I am Akbar Cheraghi’s brother. My brother is in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania. He was taken as war prisoner by the MKO in Mehran City. He had no contact with us for 36 years.

8. I am Jahanbin Khademi from Ilam Province, Saleh Abad City, Jahangir Khademi’s brother. My brother has been imprisoned in the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization for 33 years and he had on connect with us during these years. My brother is a hostage in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania now.

9. I am Ghazban Kheiri from Ilam Province, Hamid Kheiri’s brother. My brother in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania. He has been involved in the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization for 18 years and has not had any contact with us during this long time.

10. I am AIi Heiwari from Ilam Province, Mehran City, I am the brother of Mohammad Heiwari. My brother is in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania, my brother is in the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization for 43 years and we have no information about his status.

Dear Dr. Mai Sato, our children and the children of other families have no phone contact with us since they entered the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization The organization has restricted them. For what crime should they remain locked up and unmarried for the rest of their lives. This is genocide and war against God, we have already written numerous letters to international organizations and the Red Cross, but unfortunately, we have not gotten any results.

We have tried to meet our children several times, but the leaders of the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization have deprived us from this right. We and all families cannot meet our beloved children who are under the strict control of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi in Camp Ashraf 3 in Manz, Albania. May God makes us the subject of your unquestionable grace and merci.

May God bless you
Best Regards,
Some languishing families of MKO members

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