Hadi Negravi, a former member, participated in the operation under the command of Samira Shams. He witnessed the obvious violence the MEK forces committed against Kurdish villagers. He recalls that not even in one case Kurdish civilians shot a bullet against the MEK’s army, “but the MEK raided the Kurds their various arms brutally”.
According to Negravi’s testimonies, the MEK tanks shot at cars that carried Kurdish civilians. He states: “I saw with my own eyes that the MEK Kascavel shot a Land Rover full of innocent civilians on Kefri crossroad.”

Hadi Negravi who was shocked to see such violence against civilians complained to his commander, Shams: “They were civilians. There were a few innocent people in that car!” but he was encountered with anger. “Stop advocating them otherwise you will be punished too. We are at war and we will execute you right here!” Samira Shams replies.

Negravi was deeply devastated by the Mujahedin’s conduct towards the Kurds and, driven by his awakened conscience, once again protested to Samira Shams: “You had said that Khomeini’s guards were planning to attack the Mujahedin in Kurdish clothing, but we have not yet been attacked, nor have we seen any guards!” But he received an extremely harsh response that assured him that the death sentence that Shams was talking about was not far off.

“My commander and several members of the organization who were with me suddenly went crazy upon hearing my words and rushed towards me. They took me behind one of the IFAs and several people started punching and kicking me. It was as if they had captured one of the Kurdish rebels and not as if I was one of their members! I knew that if they wanted to, they could easily kill me and put the blame on the Kurds in that chaos. I had no choice but to remain silent and pretend that the matter had been resolved for me. But that was the beginning of my dissent with the MEK.”

Yousef Jurfi is another defector of the MEK whose commander was Samira Shams at Camp Ashraf. He has some heart-breaking memories of daily meetings for forced confession and self-criticism. He was exposed by one of his so-called comrades-in-arms, Sirus, simply because he had hidden his daughter’s photo in the Quran and would occasionally glance at it out of homesickness. Sirus and other members of the meeting, led by Samira Shams, beat Yousef. “You coward! You dishonorable person! Instead of putting Brother Massoud’s photo in the Quran, you put your daughter’s picture? Aren’t you ashamed? You scum!” These are the words that were thrown at the subject of the meeting, led by Samira Shams. They wanted Yousef Jurfi to cherish and love Massoud Rajavi, instead of his daughter.

He continued the story of that meeting: “Everyone was shouting at me. I was confused. My eyes were going black. Everyone was cursing and swearing at me and accusing me of betraying the group… Then Sister Samira, who had arranged this scenario for me to first crush and disfigure my character, said: What? Family? Instead of the leader’s photo, you put your daughter’s photo in the Quran? Aren’t you ashamed? Stupid! Filthy! Garbage! We gathered here to sacrifice our lives for Brother Massoud, and then you fall asleep with the love and thought of your daughter and dream about her? Yes, you opened a branch of the Revolutionary Guards in our midst. Let me tell you something. We don’t have a home or a family. The family is top one enemy. Don’t you know, know it right here!”

Moreover, the best picture might be provided by a former child soldier of the MEK, a person named Ailyn Moghadam. She, who escaped the MEK in Albania a few years ago, writes in her description of Samira Shams on her Platform X account:
“He would come… not like a human, but like a nightmare in broad daylight. 360 kilos of anger and hatred. Every step he took would shake the earth, so heavy that the asphalt groaned under her feet. It was as if the earth was tired of her. Her face was sullen, cold and poisonous. Always angry, always demanding. Her voice was like a whip and her gaze was like a knife; she didn’t comfort you; she would tear your heart. No one dared to look her in the eye. She was arrogant, a bully, and no one could get past the extent of her hatred. She didn’t scare people with her gigantic body; she would crush them. She had no respect, no mercy in her heart; she just wanted those around her to crumble under the heavy shadow of her being. She was not ashamed of her behavior; she boasted about it. She was there to command, not to live; to frighten, not to be seen. Yes, her name is Samira Shams. Among us, we called her “Genghis the Mongol.” A nickname that described her better than any other word.”

Mazda Parsi

The post Samira Shams, cruel MEK commander appeared first on Nejat Society.

It seems that in the violent history of the MEK, which includes imprisonment, interrogation, and torture, Dr. Vahid, given his expertise, is a unique repository of secrets. He is actually a black box for the Rajavi’s system, particularly during the 1990s, at Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

According to the testimonies of many defected members, Dr. Vahid not only did not prioritize the treatment of MEK members, but also fully cooperated with the organization’s leaders in covering up many of the murders that occurred within the organization.

Ignoring torture and beatings

Reza Gooran, former member of the MEK was imprisoned, interrogated and tortured by the MEK commanders because he had criticized the leaders. After enduring long interrogations, beatings, and extreme hunger in solitary confinement, Reza Goran was taken to Camp Ashraf’s infirmary where he begged Dr. Vahid to stop the torturers, but he remained silent. Goran writes: “As far as I know and have heard, Dr. Vahid was completely obedient to the leaders of the MEK and did whatever they dictated to him, without any ifs or buts.”

Hassan Moradi, another former member MEK, believes that Dr. Vahid is one of those who know many secrets about the conditions prevailing in the MEK. According to him, “many of those who were tortured or died under torture eventually ended up in infirmary, and Dr. Vahid was responsible for processing and issuing death certificates.”

Issuing fake death certificates

Hassan Moradi recalls: “I remember in 1971, Nasser Mohammadi Deljo in the 37th Division, while on guard duty at night, had put a gun to his heart and shot himself. The next day, his body was taken to a cemetery in the city of Khalis and buried. One of the forces who went to his burial later told me that they had told the Iraqi officer that he had fallen asleep while on guard duty and that the shooting had been unintentional. The death certificate, which Dr. Vahid had prepared and signed, stated that the shooting had been unintentional.”

One of those who died under torture by the MEK interrogators was Ghorban Ali Torabi. Several of Torabi’s cellmates witnessed his harrowing death. The official testimony of these witnesses was first published in the 2005 Human Rights Watch report titled “No Exit,” but Ghorban Ali’s son, Mohammad Reza Torabi, a former child soldier of the MEK, only learned of his father’s murder by the MEK interrogators when he left the organization 18 years later and gained access to the free world. He was informed by other defectors of the group.

After leaving the MEK, Mohammad Reza Torabi (Ray Torabi) began his activities on social media and among other defectors to pursue the murder of his father, whom he had not seen since childhood. Along the way, he obtained more information about his father’s death. Among the messages he received, a sender wrote about Dr. Vahid’s role in the disappearance of his father’s body: “Mohammad Reza, I must inform you with great regret that your beloved father was martyred under torture in Ashraf Prison. And your father was buried in the Al-Karkh cemetery near the former Badi’zadegan camp, in an unidentified plot, and only a number was placed above his grave. In addition, about twelve people are buried in that cemetery. I swear to God to witness and testify that it is the truth and that a few people know this. Mokhtar Jannet, Majid Alemian, Nariman and Adel, and Dr. Vahid know about it.”

Also, in the 27th session of the trial of the leaders of the MEK held in Tehran in last February, Issa Azadeh, a former member, told the judge about the torture of members inside the MEK headquarters. “If someone committed suicide or was killed under torture, the most trustworthy and reliable person in the organization for filming was Javad Ghadiri,” he testified. “Dr. Vahid was also responsible for issuing burial permits for the killed and tortured.”

Medical Negligence

Seyed Javad Ahmadi Alvanabadi, now in Albania at the Ashraf 3 camp, continues to serve as a confidential doctor devoted to Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. Members who have left the MEK in recent years, in Albania speak of Dr. Vahid’s shortcomings in medical care and treatment of members.
According to them, he and his colleagues simply ignore people’s health problems to prevent members from leaving the camp in better words to prevent their escape. Ali Zamani, a member of Nejat Society Albania who has left the group for a few years, says the following about Dr. Vahid: “In Albania, I was sick. In the MEK’s health center, Dr. Vahid and several doctors said that if you get a surgery, you will get worse. They misled me. The specialist I went to said that I would be treated with surgery, but the group’s doctors scared me that there would be complications.”

Mazda Parsi

The post The black box of the torture camps of the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

After fleeing home, Masoumeh was picked up by police while wandering Tehran’s streets. She eventually ended up in a psychiatric facility, where her family was notified of her whereabouts. “When she was still home, she used to mumble an anthem. We later found out it belonged to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK).”

The MEK is a terrorist organization that has operated mostly from outside Iran. Currently based in Albania (and previously in Iraq), the group is responsible for killing over 24,000 Iranians – including at least six people, one of them an infant, in a recent MEK-linked terrorist attack in southeastern Iran. Media outlets affiliated with the MEK characterized the terror attack as an “armed rebellion by the youth” and praised the terrorists for their brutal crime.

The MEK was listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Europe for years, until its removal in the early-to-mid 2010s. The West has long used the group for espionage and attacks inside Iran. Most recently, during the Iran-Israel war, Western media and politicians attempted to rebrand the MEK, hailing it as a “reformed,” female-led faction and even floating it as a potential alternative to Iran’s government. One New York Times report wrote that the MEK now advocates for a “secular republic, gender equality, and a non-nuclear Iran.”

But for the MEK’s victims – like Masoumeh – no PR campaign can erase their suffering. Like many others, she didn’t join voluntarily, and leaving cost her everything: her sanity, and ultimately, her life.

“Masoumeh started taking care of us at just 8 years old, after our mother died. Our father was a construction worker and was usually away at work,” Leila explained. “She always put us first and dreamed of a better life for her siblings. She cooked for us, cleaned after us, and took us outside to play.” The family had seven children – two sisters, four brothers, and an older half-sister, Fatemeh, whose ties to the MEK would destroy Masoumeh’s future.

Fatemeh had been an MEK member but left before Saddam Hussein’s fall, when the group began to bar defections from its Iraqi camps. She moved to Finland and tried to bring over two financially struggling siblings – Masoumeh and her brother, Hamidreza –through an MEK contact she thought could be trusted. “They were supposed to go to Turkey first, then Finland,” Leila said. Instead, in 2001, the MEK member took them to the Ashraf Camp in Iraq.

The family lost contact immediately. Hamidreza resurfaced 14 years later, escaping during the MEK’s chaotic relocation to Albania. Masoumeh reached out sooner by randomly visiting them after four years – but her ordeal had been far worse.

“After being taken to Iraq, they were separated at Ashraf Camp. Both resisted at first, but Hamidreza bided his time. Masoumeh kept fighting back – so the group decided to ‘get rid of her,’” Leila said.

As previously documented by the Tehran Times, the MEK routinely sent defiant members to the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, which was well-known for the systematic torture of inmates. Masoumeh endured months of beatings, isolation, and psychological torment before Iraqi guards dumped her near Iran’s border. She then walked for days – starving, traumatized – only to face more violence from roadside thugs. By the time she reached Tehran, her mind was shattered.

“The person who came back wasn’t my sister,” Leila said. “She’d slip into catatonic states. When she did regain awareness, the memories made her try to kill herself – over and over.”

The final escape

For the next 20 years, Masoumeh cycled through psychiatric facilities, where she tried to take her life multiple times. Her last attempt, taking place in February of 2025, was successful. That day, Leila visited Masoumeh in the psychiatric hospital and then took her to a restaurant in Chaloos, a scenic route north of Tehran.

“Masoumeh used to love nature. So, I took her to a nice location to spend a few hours together. But as we sat at our table, she started recalling her past, so I tried distracting her. I looked away for seconds… and she was gone.”

Triggered by flashbacks of Abu Ghraib, Masoumeh had jumped into a nearby river. Her body was later found wedged against a tree trunk. “That was the end the MEK gave her – decades of torture, physical and mental, until she couldn’t take it anymore,” Leila said as tears began to rush down her face.

Masoumeh’s story is not unique. Before the West attempts to promote a terrorist outfit as a “democratic group”, similar to how it rebranded the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists in Syria, it must reckon with dozens like her. Future Tehran Times reports will ensure they are not forgotten.

By Sheida Sabzehvari

The post The West’s ‘democratic alternative’ tortured my sister to madness appeared first on Nejat Society.

The ongoing trial aims to expose the full extent of the terrorist group’s atrocities, with victims’ families present to testify. Kidnapping, torture and detonating bombs in public places, which represent only a fraction of the group’s terrorist activities, were the focus of this hearing.

The post MEK trial in Tehran reveals heinous terrorist crimes appeared first on Nejat Society.

On August 13, 1982, no one could have imagined that the arrest of a car thief would unveil a horrific crime, later known as the “Engineering Operation”. Since then, it has been regarded as one of the most barbaric crimes in contemporary Iranian history, perpetrated by members of the MEK. Decades before the birth of ISIS, the MEK perpetrated acts far more savage.

The story began when an individual named Khosrow Zandi, a member of the MEK, was caught by the public while stealing a car intended for use in a terrorist operation. He was handed over to law enforcement. At first, it seemed like a typical car theft, but during interrogation, Zandi revealed one of the most brutal operations by the MEK. He led the officers to an area in northwest Tehran, known as Bagh Feiz, where they had buried alive three bodies.

This operation, which started on final days of July and lasted till mid-August, resulted in the deaths of three members of the Committee, a shoemaker, a teacher, and an engineer who supported the organization. The fundamental question remains: Why did the MEK commit such atrocities?

Ali Akbar Rastgoo, a former member of the MEK, wrote about the “Engineering Operation” in his memoir Mujahedin-e Khalq in the Mirror of History. He explained: “Following severe blows in early 1982 and the exposure of many of their safe houses, the organization ordered the abduction and torture of any suspicious individuals seen around these safe houses to extract information. This new initiative was named the ‘Engineering Operation’ by the organization.”

Khosrow Zandi, the car thief who was arrested, provided crucial information to the prosecution, leading to the discovery of those involved in the crime. His information revealed a house on Bahar Street in Tehran, which was the main site of the operation and the primary torture chamber. Among those arrested in this house was Mehran Asdaghi (alias Bahram), who for several months tried to downplay his role by providing false information to interrogators. However, with the confessions of other detainees, it became clear that Asdaghi was, in fact, the chief military commander of the MEK in Tehran and one of the main torturers.

Asdaghi, who was arrested in August 1982, only fully confessed in 1984 after tens of hours of interrogation and the accumulation of undeniable evidence. His statements became the primary documentation of the MEK’s incredible and horrific crimes during the “Engineering Operation.”

The bodies discovered in the Bagh Feiz area belonged to Mohsen Mirjalili and Taleb Taheri (Committee members), and Abbas Effatravesh (shoemaker). The bodies of Shahrokh Tahmasbi (Committee member), Habib Rousta (a supporter of the organization), and Khosrow Riahi Nazari (a teacher) were found in places like Sohrevardi Street and Abbasabad Hills.

The main safe house used for the “Engineering Operation” belonged to a high-ranking MEK official named Hossein Abrishamchi and was allocated to the special operations unit (terror and torture operations). This house, located in a quiet alley on Bahar Street in Tehran, had two floors, three rooms, a hall, a kitchen, a bathroom, a yard, and a basement.

The relatively large bathroom was soundproofed with several layers of thick plastic sheets to prevent the screams and cries of the tortured individuals from being heard outside. The tools found in this house included ropes of various sizes and materials, cables of different sizes for whipping, masks, handcuffs, short lead pipes, chains, locks, portable gas stoves and skewers, and cyanide.

Mustafa Madanpisheh and another MEK member, known by the alias Jafar, were assigned by the organization to abduct Abbas Effatravesh from his shop. The organization falsely identified him and his wife as informants for the security forces, a complete fabrication. On August 8, 1982, MEK members, disguised as the Committee officers, went to his shop, handcuffed and blindfolded him in their car, and transported him to the torture chamber on Bahar Street.

According to confessions by Mehran Asdaghi, it became clear within the first hours of torture that Abbas knew nothing and had been abducted without reason. Despite this, since the organization’s leadership had ordered his torture and extraction of a confession, the unfortunate shoemaker was subjected to severe torture for several days. Masoud Ghorbani (alias Taghi), the chief torturer of the organization, reportedly told Asdaghi about Effatravesh, “We couldn’t get any information, but we took revenge.”

As part of the “Engineering Operation”, the MEK ensured that no trace of their actions would be exposed. Hence, anyone captured, whether they provided information or not, was killed. Asdaghi recounted the torture of Abbas Effatravesh: “We tied the shoemaker to a chair along with two Committee members, blindfolded them, and knocked them unconscious with lead pipes. Then, we injected them with cyanide, which caused them to make gurgling sounds from their throats. While they were still alive and dying, we bound their bodies with ropes to fit them into the car’s trunk. We placed them in the trunk and at 9 PM, handed the car with the bodies over to Khosrow Zandi, who, along with Jafar Hadian, took them for burial.”

Taleb Taheri (16 years old) and Mohsen Mirjalili (25 years old) were two Committee members who became victims of the MEK’s “Engineering Operation”. They were subjected to the most brutal forms of torture and were ultimately killed.

In August 1982, Taleb and Mohsen were identified by the MEK near the house of the special operations unit (responsible for terror and torture operations) located on Karun Street in Tehran. Hossein Abrishamchi and Mohammad Mehdi Katiraei were present in this house. When Taleb and Mohsen were spotted around the same area for two or three consecutive days, the MEK decided to track and identify them. Disguised as Committee members, the MEK abducted them and took them to the torture house on Bahar Street, which had been prepared in advance.

The torturers in this house were Javad Mohammadi, Mustafa Madanpisheh, and Shahram Roshan Tabar. The primary objective of torturing Taleb and Mohsen was to determine whether the security forces had discovered or infiltrated the special operations house on Karun Street. They were immediately tied to chairs, which were then laid on the ground, and then, the beating with thick, multi-layered cables began.

Asdaghi recounts this story: “That same day, Masoud Ghorbani informed me that Rahmat (Hossein Abrishamchi) had ordered their abduction and that the responsibility for their interrogation lay with him (Masoud). He instructed me to help prepare the interrogation questions to understand how the safe houses were being compromised. Thus, I took a leading role in this process, acting as someone who carried out the central leadership’s directives. To instill fear, we wore masks. I did the same and entered the bathroom. I saw a 16- or 17-year-old boy in the corner of the bathroom, his hands and feet chained. His name was Taleb Taheri. His legs were bruised and swollen. His body and the soles of his feet were blistered. Then I went to another room to see another person named Mohsen Mirjalili. He was around 24 or 25 years old, sitting in the corner of the room with his hands and feet chained. His body, like Taleb’s, had been severely tortured with cables”.

Taleb and Mohsen were whipped so severely that their feet blistered. The MEK would then whip the blisters until they burst. The torturers would dress their feet to prepare them for the next round of torture. Ghorbani and Asdaghi repeatedly asked them the same questions, and they continuously denied any knowledge. Since the organization’s leadership insisted that the two must have information, their torture continued relentlessly. In his interrogation notes, Asdaghi quoted Madanpisheh: “We tortured them a lot yesterday to find out if they were monitoring the house, but they denied it. Apparently, they were not monitoring the house”.

The MEK poured boiling water over the blisters on the bodies of these Committee members, causing their skin to crack and the blisters to burst. Throughout the torture, Taleb and Mohsen repeatedly lost and regained consciousness. Mehran Asdaghi recounts the brutality: “I poured hot water over their heads and faces, causing blisters. Blood was flowing from every part of their bodies. Taher (Javad Mohammadi) would drag a knife tip across their bodies, leaving no part unscathed.”

When these horrific tortures failed to yield results, Masoud Ghorbani (Taghi) instructed Asdaghi to bring an iron. Ghorbani heated the iron and pressed it against Mohsen Mirjalili’s back. Asdaghi describes the scene: “Mohsen’s mouth opened in a bizarre way from the pain, and he lost consciousness. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. I was terrified. Masoud was also scared, but he tried to appear composed”.

Javad Mohammadi repeatedly slashed Taleb’s arm with a knife until blood spurted out on the third cut. Taleb’s body convulsed in pain. When Taleb attempted to speak, Javad punched him in the mouth, then struck his jaw and mouth with a lead rod, breaking his teeth. Javad continued to beat other parts of Taleb’s body with the rod. Asdaghi continues: “Mohsen regained consciousness, and Masoud instructed me to bring boiling water. I brought it, and Masoud said, ‘Pour it on his legs.’ I wanted to pour it all at once, but Masoud gestured to pour it slowly for more pain. I did as he said, causing all the blisters on Mohsen’s legs to burst in a gruesome way, with the skin peeling off. Mohsen fainted, and when he woke up, he scratched at his trousers. Masoud poured boiling water on Mohsen’s hands, causing them to swell, wrinkle, and look cooked.”

In another corner of the room, Javad Mohammadi sliced Taleb’s scalp with a knife, causing him to pass out. When Taleb regained consciousness and tried to speak, the malicious torturer cut off his ear, then sliced off his nose. Asdaghi recalls: “A lot of blood gushed from Taleb’s head and face, covering him in blood, and he fainted again. While Taleb was unconscious, Javad pressed the knife against his eye, causing blood to spurt from it.”

In the meantime, the beating of Mohsen Mirjalili with cables continued. Mohsen’s body was so weakened that when Asdaghi was whipping him, Masoud Ghorbani held his head, tearing out a handful of Mohsen’s hair.

In another corner of the room, Javad Mohammadi continued torturing the frail and broken body of young Taleb. Taleb, unconscious and with blood dried on various parts of his face, was still being tortured on the chair, while Javad used pliers to pull out his teeth. Blood poured from Taleb’s mouth, which had a foul odor.

Javad Mohammadi (Taher), despite the semi-conscious state of Taleb, demanded information from him. Naturally, even if Taleb had wanted to speak, he was in no condition to do so. Taher, seemingly intoxicated with violence and sadism, resorted to a horrific act. He brought a portable stove and a metal skewer, heating the skewer until it was red-hot, and pressed it against Taleb’s thigh. The third time, he pressed it against Taleb’s sensitive areas through his trousers, causing the young boy’s body to go into shock. According to the Revolutionary Court documents, the torturers were not satisfied with this and committed further unspeakable acts that are too shameful to describe.

Asdaghi recounts the rest of the events: “They regained consciousness a few more times by the afternoon… In the afternoon, due to panic, Mustafa Madanpisheh accidentally fired a shot when Mohsen Mirjalili moved, forcing us to evacuate the house.”

The torturers then used lead rods to knock Taleb and Mohsen unconscious and injected them with cyanide. With their bodies half-burned, skin torn, and flesh shredded, they were still breathing and dying. They were wrapped in blankets, tied with ropes, and placed in the trunk of a car.

At 9 PM, we handed over the car to Khosrow Zandi and Mohammad Jafar Hadian in Nezamabad Street to take the bodies for burial in the surrounding deserts. When the torture incident was revealed, the MEK did not anticipate the severe backlash it would face. The massive turnout for the funeral processions and the discontent among the organization’s members were unexpected. The leaders instructed us to say nothing about the incident to the members, and if anyone asked, we were to claim it was the regime’s doing.

In addition to those previously mentioned, another victim of the MEK’s “Engineering Operation” was Habib Rousta, a 28-year-old engineer and board member of Persi-Gas Company. Rousta was a supporter of the organization, providing financial aid and using his home to hide members. Despite his loyalty, the MEK became suspicious of him after the numerous blows they suffered in late 1981 and early 1982. Habib Rousta was abducted by the organization despite the baseless nature of their suspicions. He was brutally tortured for several days in the Bahar Street torture house by Javad Mohammadi, Mehran Asdaghi, and Masoud Ghorbani, ultimately dying from the severe injuries.

by Habilian (Iranian Families of Terror Victims)
Written by Tehran Times – Created: Jun 26, 2024
https://www.habilian.ir/en/202406264939/perspectives/torture-redefined-the-horrific-engineering-operation.html

The post Torture Redefined: The Horrific Engineering Operation appeared first on Nejat Society.

This solemn day serves as a poignant reminder of the suffering inflicted upon individuals subjected to torture, emphasizing their rights to justice and rehabilitation and the need to bring perpetrators to justice.

Against this backdrop of international condemnation, recent legal proceedings in Iran have drawn the public attention to the egregious actions of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a terrorist group known for its brutal campaigns against civilians. Notorious among these acts was the “Engineering Operations,” which struck fear into the hearts of Tehran’s populace, illustrating the group’s ruthless methods.

Currently facing trial in Iran, the MEK stands accused of orchestrating these heinous crimes. The 13th court session, originally convened to address these charges, highlights the broader issue of torture as an affront to human dignity and a violation of international law.

On August 8, 1982 (17th of Mordad, 1361), MEK members received orders to abduct individuals under suspicion of involvement with their compromised safe houses. After the abductions, these individuals were taken to designated locations. The MEK elements bound the captives’ hands and feet, subjecting them to arbitrary beatings with cables on their feet and bodies, causing severe bruising. The wounds were hastily bandaged, only to be reopened as the torture was repeated. The victims often lost consciousness under the relentless torture sessions.

Despite realizing the wrongful abduction and the captives’ lack of any useful intelligence, the torturers persisted in their brutal methods. Forensic medical reports confirmed burn marks from boiling water on the victims’ heads and faces. Additionally, lacerations inflicted with sharp objects were documented all over their bodies. In their confessions, members of the MEK admitted to stabbing victims with knives in non-vital areas to avoid excessive bleeding. The perpetrators escalated their violence by burning one of the victims with an iron and repeatedly slashing another victim’s arm with a knife, tearing muscle tissues and causing deep wounds.

This account vividly illustrates the barbarity and the inhumanity inflicted upon the victims during the “Engineering Operation,” showcasing the MEK’s ruthless disregard for human life and dignity.

During the Operation, the MEK systematically mutilated their victims, cutting their scalp, ears, and noses with knives, and even gouging out their eyes. Forensic medical reports confirmed the presence of heavy metal objects (likely lead pipes) inflicted on the victims’ head and jaw. The torturers of the MEK confessed to pulling out the teeth of one victim using pliers and inserting a metal skewer, heated with a red-hot poker, into the victim’s thigh and body.

Eventually, the cruelty reached its peak when the MEK administered cyanide to victims who were still alive, followed by their burial.

While Operation targeted civilians who did not adhere to the MEK, the group also inflicted severe torture on its own members and supporters, as revealed during the group’s thirteenth trial session in the Iranian court. A former member positioned as a witness testified about the brutalities and tortures that the MEK sanctioned against its own members and sympathizers.

During a period when suspicions arose about me within the group, “they imprisoned me. In the prison, they hanged me upside down, threw food on the ground, and drilled a hole in my tooth, inserting a wire into it,” recounted the former member.

Acts of violence such as torture, due to their inhumanity and violation of human principles, were brought before international bodies as early as 1899. These actions were prohibited under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Over time, supplementary laws were added, and legal scholars increasingly recognized the anti-humanitarian effects of torture, leading to its universal prohibition. Key prohibitive laws include Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Protocols of 1977. Additionally, the European and American Conventions on Human Rights condemned torture under Articles 3 and 5(2), respectively. Between 1973 and 1976, the United Nations General Assembly issued five resolutions unanimously, culminating in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This convention solidified the foundation for prohibiting torture globally.

Article 1 of the Convention defines torture as:

“Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. Torture does not include pain or suffering arising only from lawful sanctions or inherent or incidental to lawful sanctions”

Furthermore, Article 2 of the Convention obligates states to take necessary measures to prevent acts of severe violence and torture within their jurisdiction. Article 4 of the Convention criminalizes torture and requires states to prosecute perpetrators.

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, under Article 38, explicitly states: “All forms of torture to obtain confessions or information are prohibited; forcing a person to testify, confess, or swear is not permissible, and such testimony, confession, or oath is devoid of value and credibility.”

Ensuring the enforcement of Article 38, Article 578 of the Islamic Penal Code stipulates: “Any official, judicial or non-judicial, who physically abuses and harasses a suspect to force a confession, in addition to qisas (retaliation) or payment of diya (blood money), shall be sentenced to imprisonment from six months to three years. If the victim dies due to torture, the actual perpetrator will face the punishment for murder, and the commanding officer will be sentenced for ordering the murder.”

It is evident that the crime of torture primarily pertains to officials whose aim is to extract information or confessions, as specified in the Convention. However, in cases of abduction by criminal syndicates, where severe violence is observed, the purpose is not to obtain confessions or information but rather to coerce negotiation and demonstrate seriousness in their statements.

The MEK terrorist group has repeatedly engaged in severe acts of violence and torture against Iranian and Iraqi citizens to obtain information and confessions. Torture, categorized among crimes against humanity, is universally condemned and considered reprehensible by all members of the global community. Perpetrators of such acts can be deemed enemies of all nations. Therefore, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, any state has the right to pursue, prosecute, and punish such criminals. Given the egregious nature of their actions, MEK members involved in torture and violence may face international accountability for their crimes.

**The article has been supplied to the IRNA by the Habilian Association, a human rights NGO that represent the Iranian families of terror victims

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His sister, Saeeda Shahrokhi, was also a member of the Cult of Rajavi, and she is considered one of the high-ranking officials of the group. In 1984, she married Massoud Kalani (anchor of the Mujahideen TV channel) in Paris. It was an organizational forced marriage. They were later forced to divorce under the order of Massoud Rajavi, as a ruling of the so-called Maryam ideological revolution.

Afsana was one of the officials who played an active and significant role in suppressing the members who wanted to defect the organization. She appointed her deputy, who was Zohra Akhyani in 1989 to 1990, to administer the meeting and suppress the dissidents.

Dariush Ghanavati is a former member of the MEK who encountered Hamideh Shahrokhi’s violence when he asked to leave the organization. He recounts: “Hamida Shahrokhi told me, do you want to go out? We do not send anyone abroad! I answered, what do I have to do with abroad? I want to return to Iran. He drew an arrow with a marker and said that one end of this arrow is a Mujahid and the other end is an Iranian revolutionary guard. Which one are you?! I said none. I want to go back to my family.”

“She started insulting and cursing and the rest of the crowd followed her,” Dariush continues. “They pressured me so much that I started crying. Then they took me to the southeast side of Camp Ashraf and imprisoned me in a Conex, called Bangal.”

Kambiz Bagherzadeh is another former member of the Cult of Rajavi who recalls Afsaneh as his torturer after he wrote a letter to Massoud Ragavi and asked him to let him leave the group in 1990. “They transferred me to a shanty-like room that we called Bengal, and I was there alone for about a month,” he writes in his memoirs. “I was only allowed to leave the place twice a day to use the restroom, and they kept a guard behind the Bengal door for me 24/7. The Bengal was actually a cell for solitary confinement.”
“Little by little, loneliness and mental pressure pressed me so much so that sometimes I actually thought of suicide!”, Kambiz recalls. “From the 20th day, they made me participate in meetings for those who wanted to leave the organization. Really nauseating meetings that were full of insulting, cursing, and spitting on the targeted person, and everyone was shouting and yelling so loud that no one could understand what others were saying. Everyone was shouting at the poor person! This was where Afsanah was the commander, all these crimes were committed under her orders and supervision.”

In 1993 and 1994, the MEK imprisoned about 700 members of the group under that accusation of being an agent of the Iranian intelligence. The imprisoned ones have been accused of such a charge because they had asked to leave the group or they had criticized the group’s ideology or leaders. According to the defector’s testimonies, Hamida Shahrokhi was one of the torturers in this story, who brutally harassed the disaffected forces as much as possible.

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Taleb Jalilian was a member of the MEK and a true believer of the group’s cause to fight the Iranian government. When the leader of the group Massoud Rajavi ordered the start of armed struggle against Islamic Republic, Taleb was seeking a way to receive military trainings, so he joined the Iranian army!

While being a soldier of the Iranian army, he tried to contact the group which was located in Iraq. It had been sheltered by Saddam Hussein who was at war with Iran at the time. After he was connected with the MEK, he was charged with the leaders to transfer the group’s forces through Iran-Iraq border.
Under the order of the leaders, he stopped his duty, and he left Iran for Iraq where he joined the MEK’s so-called National Liberation Army at Camp Ashraf. After a while things started to change.

“I still believed in the group’s cause,” he says in an interview with Mehr News Agency. “I was certain about it but gradually I began to hesitate, I began to have problems with the group, but I did not criticize the group at all. I just said that I could not keep on struggling.”

The cult-like atmosphere of the MEK and its oppressive ruling made Taleb Jalilian, and many other members of the group want to leave it but, this was a difficult path to take. Like many others, Taleb asked to leave the MEK but in response he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for a year, eventually interrogated and tortured by his own commanders.

“There was a judiciary system in the MEK,” he recounts. “The chief of the system was Nader Rafiee. The judge was Hassan Mohasel. Kak Adel, Nariman, Ebrahim Zakeri and Majid Alamian were guardians of the prison, interrogators and torturers.”
“They beat me to force me to get back to the group,” he says. “I was so terribly beaten by them that I could not hold my urine and stool for some time.”

Under the ruling of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi, the torturers tied his hands and feet and blindfolded him. “I could hear Ahmad Kamyab who was beating me in nose,” he recalls. “He was an athlete. He was strong enough to beat me harshly.”

The MEK torturers told Taleb, “If you are determined to give up you have to sign a testimony to admit that you are a mercenary of the Iranian intelligence ministry, otherwise you will stay here until you rot.”

Taleb did not want to accept the deal. He had left his family, wife and his youth behind for the MEK’s cause. He had devoted his everything to the Rajavis, he could not admit the label: mercenary of the Iranian government.

He went on hunger strike until he was finally released. However, he was not allowed to leave the camp yet. Massoud Rajavi promised to deliver him and others like him to the Red Cross, but they were part of a deal with Saddam Hussein. They were delivered to Abu Ghraib prison and after a while they were exchanged with Iraq POWs who had been released by Iranian authorities.
Taleb was terrified. He was an officer of the Iranian army. He had escaped and joined an opponent military group. He was sure that he will be sentenced to death by an Iranian military court.
They were transferred from Iraqi border to Tehran while they did not trust their fellow countrymen. “I was waiting death penalty but after a month of imprisonment in Evin prison, they allowed us to visit our family and later we were freed,” he recounts.

Taleb began a new life in his hometown. He went to university, graduated and found a good job. He has a family and lives in Iran now.

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Masoumeh Chaheh and her brother Hamid Chaheh joined the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq in 2002. At the time, Masoumeh was 23 and Hamid was 20. A few months later, Masoumeh was the one who revolted against the cult-like regulations and suppressive system of the group. She asked to leave the group, but it was no simple.

Hamid Chaheh

Hamid left the MEK in 2014 after the group was relocated in Albania. Only after his defection from the Cult of Rajavi, he learned about his sister’s heart-breaking fate. Today, near a decade after his defection he has found the courage to speak out. In an Interview with former MEK member Siamak Naderi, he gave testimony about his own experience as a member of the Cult of Rajavi as well as his sister’s.

According to Hamid, the MEK commanders had promised him to send his sister back to Iran with the company of one of their trusted agents –who were actually smugglers. Eventually, Masoumeh reached her aunt’s house in Tehran with bloody hands and in a state of mental breakdown. She would repeatedly say that several men in black chased her and raped her. Their other sister recounted the traumatic story for Hamid years later.

Masoumeh living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients

Since then, Masoumeh has been living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients. Based on Hamid testimonies only after ten years of psychotherapy, Masoumeh could speak about her experience as a member of the MEK, at Camp Ashraf. Today, she can explain what had happened to her in front of the camera of one of her family members, which is shown in Siamak Naderi’s TV show. “It was very hard,” she says in her purple hospital pajamas. “All day, they forced us to run and to work hard.”

She is 44 years old now, but she looks much older. Almost her entire hair has turned white. She is not able to stay home with her family more than one week per a month because she is always at risk of getting uncontrollably nervous.

The brother of Masoumeh, Hamid has lately come to term with himself in order to speak out about his sister’s distressing experience in only a few months of involvement with the Cult of Massoud Rajavi. As an expert and researcher on the MEK, Siamak Naderi is the first person to interview these two heart-broken siblings.

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Fattahian left the MEK in 2011 after 19 years of membership. He lives in France now. Comparing Maryam Rajavi’s so-called “Ten Point Plan” for “Free Iran” with the reality inside the MEK, Fattahian proves that the group is undemocratic and hypocrite.

Ghafoor Fattahian, a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, living in france

He writes, “In the notorious Camp Ashraf, a lot of members would react Maryam Rajavi’s speeches about free Iran in her propaganda shows because they could see contradictions between what Rajavi said and what was going on inside her camps.”

He even recalls Massoud Rajavi’s reply to members who criticized Maryam: “Maryam and I have to say these words in order to shut the mouths of western politicians”.
Two of MEK members who began dissent at Camp Ashraf were Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi. Fattahian confirms that they were killed by the group leaders after they criticized them for the conflicts between their words and acts.

Actually, actions carry the stronger message. Fattahian recounts:
“These two people were in my unit. Mohammad Ashayer criticized Maryam’s words about free future Iran saying that the MEK itself was not engaged in democracy and freedom for its own members and acted undemocratically inside its base. He would ask how Maryam Rajavi could guarantee freedom of Iranians after the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.”
According to Fattahian, “Aziz Asadi criticized the MEK for lack of freedom of speech and expression”. He would also question the function of the MEK’s so-called National Liberation Army.
Both men were tried in a court under the command of two female commanders, Maryam Akbari and another woman who Fattahian does not remember her name. “The trial lasted for several hours,” Fattahian writes. “The two men were insulted, humiliated and accused of being the agents of the Iranian intelligence ministry during the trial.”

However, Ashayer and Asadi did not shrink from their opinion. Thus, Assadollah Mosana, the MEK’s notorious torturer entered the scene. Fattahian was an eyewitness of the scene:
“Assadollah Mosana along with some of other prison guards and torturers suddenly attacked them. They beat them to death and then they took them out of the hall, and we never saw them again.”
Fattahian tried to find a track of his disappeared comrades, but he could not find anything until two years later. “Kamran Fallahi and I were patrolling around Camp Ashraf,” he says. “We went to the camp’s cemetery and ran into a group of journalists. A large number of photos of casualties of the MEK’s terrorist operators and executed members of the group were hanging everywhere. Kamran and I were shocked to see the photos of Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi among them. Pari Bakhshai, the high commander of the camp was telling the journalists that they were victims of the Islamic Republic!”

Ghafoor Fattahian and Kamran Fallahi went to Pari Bakhshai and asked her, “When were they killed? They were in our unit” Bakhshai answered, “Good job to tell us about them. We will remove their pictures,” But, eventually Ghafoor and Kamran were kicked out of the cemetery.
This was not the end of the story. Ghafoor and Kamran were summoned immediately after they got back to their unit. “Never talk about what you saw today! It is a red line!” They were told.

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