Tortur and Harasment in Mujahedin Khalq

Civil Court Against Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult In Tehran

Former members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) reacted outside a Tehran courthouse on Wednesday after the organisation “was condemned and obliged to pay for financial and moral damages” to them, according to the plaintiffs.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Ruptly-Court-Tehran.mp4

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The plaintiffs, themselves former members of the cult-like group, allege they were captured during the Iraq-Iran war and were forced to become members of the political-militant group which advocates and fights for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the leadership of Maryam and Massoud Rajavi.

Forty-two individuals were involved in the proceedings and were claiming damages and compensation in connection with imprisonment and torture and alleged human rights violations.

The European Union, Canada, and the United States had previously categorised the MEK as a terrorist organisation. The designation has now been lifted.

Ruptly.tv

March 27, 2021 0 comments

Iran

Evidences of torture and abuse in the MEK

A court session was held in Tehran to investigate the complaints filed a by a group of former members of the Mujahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) specifically to sue the leaders Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and certain other senior officials of the group.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/PressTV/PressTV-Iran-MKO-Court-202103.mp4

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42 people addressed the court, giving evidences on several cases of abuse and torture inside the MEK. The followings are only a few cases of the complainants’ testimonies:

Nightmares I still see
Ali Moradi, was a victim of forced labor, mal-treatment and deception in the MEK. He was deceptively told by the group commanders that his wife was executed by the Iranian government and his brother was killed by the Iranian revolutionary guard. He found both of them alive after he defected the group. “They deprived us of our family. We were mentally abused. I still see nightmares of those days, at least once in a month”, He told the court.

They burned my tattoo
Akbar Khabareh was a war prisoner of the Iran-Iraq war who was recruited by the MEK. He was a member of the group for 17 years. “I lost the best years of my life in this illegitimate cult,” he addressed the court. “I had my mother’s name tattooed on my arm. They told me that it had to be burned. They burned it by soldering iron.”

They pulled off my nails
Nader Chapchaap was deceived to join the MEK by its recruiters in Turkey where he had immigrated to work. He was taken to Iraq and forced to stay in Camp Ashraf for four years. “They pulled off my toe nails and then forced me to work in military and service units of the organization,” he addressed the court. “Consequently, my feet were infected.” Chapchaap’s feet were then amputated.
Another complainant in the court, Mohammad Javad Assadi who was recruited by the group in the same way as Chapchaap was, said, ”I was imprisoned by the MEK for three and a half years and then I was kept in the American camp for four years and I witnessed they pulled off Chapchaap’s toenails.”

They kept me in a cage
Fathollah Eskandari was a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war when he was shot and taken as a hostage by the MEK forces. “They kept me in a cage for the first three months,” he said. “During the 17 years of my imprisonment in the MEK, I witnessed a man named Khodam Golmohammadi set himself on fire, he survived, they took him somewhere, I did not see him anymore. I saw Hojat Azizi and Karim Pedram shot themselves dead and a blind man named Rasool set himself on fire too.”

Forced me to hunger strike
Fereidoon Ebrahimi escaped the MEK in 2015. He had been recruited by the MEK in Turkey. “The mental tortures are worse that the physical tortures in the MEK,” he told the judge. “I was forced to take part in the group’s hunger strike for 92 days in 2011.”
“Camp Ashraf was a forced labor camp,” he told about MEK’s cut-like system. “We had no time to think freely since we were forced to work hard from 5 am until night.”

It was forbidden to speak of your mother
Mahmoud Dashtestani was only 15 when he was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces, he was then recruited by the MEK. He escaped the group in 2009 and returned to Iran as a 41-year-old man. “Once, I told a memory about my mother, my peers sent a report against me to the superior members,” he recounted an experience of the cult-like structure of the MEK. “They jailed me for three days and then they made me sign a paper to promise that I would not think of my mother anymore.”

I am the People
Leila Kayukan is the daughter of Rahim Kayukan, an MEK member. “For 40 years, the efforts of my family to contact my father have not been successful,” she told the court. “As a child, I lost my dad, I never even heard his voice. I am the people.” She refers to the alleged title of the group, “Fighters of Iranian People”.

My brother was not in Denmark
Leila Qasemi is the sister of Habibollah Qasemi, a hostage of the MEK. “We have not seen my brother since 19 years ago,” she addressed the court. “My brother went to Turkey and then traveled to Greece where he was deceived by the MEK recruiters and was taken to Camp Ashraf, Iraq.”
The Qasemis thought that Habibollah had gone to Denmark from Greece. “We pursued his case via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and realized that he had never gone to Denmark but he was kidnapped to join the MEK in Iraq.” In 2016 they went to Camp Ashraf to visit his brother. “They did not allow us to visit him but instead we were attacked by rocks,” she said.

I am here to confirm their testimonies
Hadi shabani was a member of the MEK for 20 years. He left the group in 2004. He took part in the court hearing to give his testimony endorsing other complainants. “I was responsible of the reception unit in the MEK so I witnessed many things,” he said. “Soon after I myself entered the group, all the ideals I had about the cause of the group collapsed in my mind.”
“In the cult of MEK you are not allowed to ask questions, you are just the executors of the leaders’ orders,” he told the judge.

March 16, 2021 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO ex-members file lawsuits against leaders

A court session has been held in Tehran to look into the complaints filed a by a group of former members of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalgh grouplet known as MKO, who have fled to the country after several years of being under torture and oppression by the MKO leaders namely Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and other senior officials of the terrorist cult.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/PressTV/PressTV-Iran-MKO-Court-202103.mp4

To download the video file click here

This is the first time that such a lawsuit has been filed at a legal court. The 42 individuals claim damages and compensation in connection with imprisonment, torture.

Saman Kojouri

March 9, 2021 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Complaints of 42 former members of the MEK against the leaders

The investigation into the complaints of 42 former members of the Mojahedin Khalq against the senior members of the group has begun. In the first court hearing the petitions of these individuals, part of the physical and mental torture committed by the Mojahedin Khalq was stated.

court hearing on MKO leaders crimes

At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Pourmoridi, while announcing the formality of the hearing, said: The defendants, in this case, are the group of Hypocrites (Mujahedin-e Khalq), Massoud Rajavi, Maryam Rajavi, Mehdi Abrishamchi, Abolghasem Rezaei, Seyed Mohammad Seyed Mohaddesi, Majid Hariri, Mahboubeh Jamshidi, Mehdi Moradi, Mojgan Parsai, Mohammad Ali Tofighi Khaniki, Mohammad Hayati, Abbas Ali Seifipour, Hadi Roshanrovan, Alireza Jafarzadeh, Mohammad Sadegh Sadat Darbandi, Mahvash Sepehri, Azra Alavi Taleghani, Mehdi Ali Gholi, Mohammad Javad Ghadiri Modarresi, Sara Samsami, and Giti Givechian.

court hearing on MKO leaders crimes

He continued:”Through France and Albania, where the members of this group reside, the notification was made after the submission of the petition.”We directly talked to the Albanian Ministry of Justice so that they could receive the notification sent to them through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The head of the court said: the notification was sent in January of 2021 and two months of legal opportunity have passed until the investigation.

Kayoukan

The lawyer of the 42 ex-members of MEK, Mr. Tavasoli said in the petition:”Human Rights Watch has provided a detailed investigation in this regard, some of the documents of which are mentioned in the petition.”

He said:”At different times, a series of instructions have been given to the members of this group, one of the instructions of that headquarter was regarding the social section of the group.”

Nader Chapchop

He continued: For example, Massoud Rajavi declares that everyone should divorce their spouses and all family emotions should be on my side, everyone should just love me and live for me.

One of the leaders of this cult, Massoud Banisadr, who left the cult, says: ‘Operation Forough Javidan, which we refer to in Iran as Operation Mersad, destroyed our political hope, which for me and many others it signaled an ideological end. We all became actors who played with each other and encouraged each other, and after Operation Forough, the well of honesty dried up completely.

Tavasoli said:”According to Batool Soltani, another member of the leadership council of the group, women in this cult are deprived of the most basic rights, they do not have the right to marry, let alone choose a husband, in this cult because having a social life, having private things like a private bedroom, do not matter and women cannot go anywhere alone. No one dared to criticize the organization, and many women were physically abused”.

court hearing on MKO leaders crimes

He continued: sexual exploitation was done for the leader of the cult, who was Massoud Rajavi.

He stressed: According to Human Rights Watch, this group uses three types of prisons. The first type is small units known as guesthouses. The second type of imprisoning was inside the camp which was called Bengal incarceration, and the third type was the incarceration in which women were physically tortured.

Eskandari

The lawyer continued:”Beating with cable, burning, beating, etc. are among the tortures that the victims of this group, who are among the plaintiffs of this case, suffered.”One of the members who had the word”mother”tattooed on his arm was forced to remove the word from his hand by heating it.

He continued:”Forcing to sleep with Massoud Rajavi, cutting body parts, severely beating and throwing on pieces of hot glass is part of the tortures that the victims of this group and the plaintiffs suffered and has caused psychological damage to the plaintiffs.”

He added: The members of the hypocrites (MEK) were obliged to work 14 hours of forced labor, including doing agriculture, transportation, torture, etc., for little food per day; In many cases, the work done by the members was useless and so that the person would not be unemployed. The plaintiffs, in this case, are people who have been harmed for years, and therefore financial compensation can never make up for the lives lost to these people.

Referring to the declaration of Human Rights, he said:”According to this declaration, all human beings are born free and everyone has the right of life, liberty, and security, and no one can be enslaved or tortured.”Given the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the fact that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person and in view of the above and the basic rule of civil liability, the issuance of a sentence following the statements is requested.

Jack Turner, Geopolitica.ru

March 9, 2021 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

First Court Hearing on MEK crimes held in Tehran

The trial held on the petition of 42 ex-members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group

court hearing on MKO leaders crimes

March 8, 2021 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Traumatic stories of torture in the MKO during the 1990s—Part two

In the first part of theses series of articles, traumatic experience of Gholam Reza Shokri was covered as one of the numerous cases of human rights violations that has taken place in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization ( The MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi).

According to the Human Rights Watch report “No Exit”, in the early 1990s, dissent was on the rise Camp Ashraf. Former MKO members interviewed for this report cite the following reasons for their decision to leave the organization: military failure of the MKO to dislodge the Iranian government during the July 1988 military operation, forced mass divorces instituted as part of the “ideological revolution” and their persecution and torture by the MKO operatives during “security clearances” in 1994-1995.
According to the HRW report, “human rights abuses carried out by MKO leaders against dissident members ranged from prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement to beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution, and torture that in two cases led to death”.
1994-1995 marks the most horrible stories of torture and human rights abuse in the MKO’s Camp Ashraf, Iraq. Jamal Azimi (Known in the MKO as Majid Kaviani) wrote his tremendous memoirs of witnessing verbal and physical abuse in Camp Ashraf in 1994 (1373 Persian calendar).

Azimi is one of those reportedly 700 members of the MKO who were imprisoned and tortured in the project of “security clearance” during the 1994 to 1995. “The suppressive project was so huge that Rajavi could not launch it without preplanning; torturers and murderers should have been indoctrinated to operate Rajavi’s scenario,” Azimi writes.

He recalls that one of the female commandants named Sister Zarin called on all members to the eating place and spoke of the organization’s decisions for some cross border operations. “Everyone was nervous looking at each other in wonder and anxiety,” he writes.
The process of taking the rank and file to an unknown place was started the same night. “Assadollah Mosana came over and took one of the comrades,” Azimi recalls. “Two people took his locker to the other place. The process went on. Every night one or two people were removed from our unit. The unit became almost empty.”
Finally, it was his own turn. Assadollah called on Azimi and told him that Sister Zarin wanted to see him. In the new place he had to take map reading lessons. “The class was so boring. I had passed such courses several times… After some time the class was not as crowded as the first days. No one knew about the fate of the absentees.”
Azimi had no idea that those members had been taken for interrogation and torture in groups until the night that Sister Mehri called on him and his friend (nicknamed Ali) and told them that they had to go to the internal unit. “Hadi picked us up in his jeep and took us to the Street No. 100 [of Camp Ashraf]. We were thrown in a room of an abandoned building. They treated us so harshly…nothing was normal… we trusted the leader and our commandants so much that we guessed that they wanted to examine our devotion to the group,” Azimi recounts.
Finally Jamal was taken to the interrogation room where a superior member called Fazel started shouting at him: “You are a spy of the regime!”.
This was the accusation for all those 700 people. Azimi was shocked because he had joined the MKO on his own will. He had devoted his whole life to the group’s cause. “I could not believe that I was labeled as a spy after those many years of devotion to the Mujahedin,” he writes.
Azimi and Ali were then transferred to jail. “At midnight we heard loud screams. Someone was being beaten by others.” He recalls his memoir of the first night at the MKO prison. “It lasted for half an hour. We were listening to the sounds of scream and beating in fear and worry looking at each other. No one dared to speak. The screams ended. Ten minutes later, Mokhtar and Aadel [the two torturers that Jamal Azimi had seen as comrades before getting imprisoned] hurled a man in the cell and closed the door. He was unconscious. His nose and mouth were bleeding. His face was swollen and bruised.”
Jamal Azimi suffered the most terrible conditions of food, sleep and health in the MKO prison together with his six co-prisoners. All night long they heard prisoners whining from other cells. The prison guards –their former friends—treated them so terribly that no one could dare to ask why such a treatment.
After a dozen of days, once more, with tied hands and closed eyes, they were transferred to a place in Camp Ashraf called Castle No. 200. They were settled in a big room that housed 20 people. “The room was very dirty, full of garbage, dust and human’s stool. It smelled very bad,” Jamal writes.
“In the entire days I spend in Rajavi’s jail, I saw tortured people whose face was not recognizable because of too much beating,” he says. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could not realize such atrocities against my friends.”

One of the tortured ones had been in the same unit that Azimi was. Azimi got close to him and asked him what the problem was. He was so terrified that he could not open up. Finally he said, “They wanted to force me to admit that I am the spy of regime but I did not admit such a false accusation.”

“What did they beat you with?” Azimi asked the bleeding man. “With wooden sticks, cables and Brother Hekmat beat me with a sleeper,” he replied.

This was a technic to intimidate other prisoners. Everyone in the cell was worried waiting for his turn to get tortured. Jamal Azimi was not tortured personally but he witnessed his comrade’s pains and sufferings after they were physically tortured by the MKO authorities. “I think if the group had the possibilities, they would have involved all members in their “security clearance” project,” Azimi suggests. “I do not know the exact number of members who were imprisoned and tortured in this project. After it was finished comrades would estimate different numbers, but most of them agreed on 700.”
In his opinion, Security Clearance was Rajavi’s tactic to silence any voice of dissent in the group. Rajavi seemed to be planning for an establishment in which no one would be allowed to express his/her criticism or opposition against the group’s leadership and strategies.
Mazda Parsi

December 24, 2018 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Traumatic stories of torture in the MKO during the 1990s

When in May 2005 the Human Rights Watch reported on the huge violations of human rights inside the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ The Cult of Rajavi), the subtitle “Security Clearance” discussed the conditions in which human rights abuses took place in the group’s camps. “During late 1994 and early 1995, many members of the MKO were arrested by the organization’s operatives inside their camps in Iraq,” the report reads. “They were interrogated and accused of spying for the Iranian government. They were released in mid-1995 after being forced to sign false confessions and stating their loyalty to the leaders.”

The authors of the HRW’s report “NO EXIT”, interviewed five former members of the group Farhad Javaheri-Yar, Ali Ghashghavi, Alireza Mirasgari, Akbar Akbari, and Abbas Sadeghinejad. “According to their testimonies—detailed in the next section—the purpose of these arrests was to intimidate dissidents and obtain false confessions from them stating that they were agents of Iranian government. This period was known as the “security clearance”.”

Human rights abuses carried out by MKO leaders against dissident members ranged from prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement to beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution, and torture that in two cases led to death.

Based on NO EXIT report, the severe cases of torture ended with the death of at least two people Parviz Ahmadi and Ghorban Ali Torabi. However, after the report was published in 2005, a lot of testimonies and memoirs of defectors were published confirming the HRW’s report and in many cases, numerous facts on the human rights abuses in the MKO were added to those that were stated in the report.

Since the relocation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization in Albania and the increased defection from the group, more revelations were made on the “Security Clearance” in 1994 and 1995. Gholam Reza Shokri who left the group in 2017 recounted his traumatic experience of torture in the MKO’s jail in an interview with Spiegel.

Gholarmreza Shokri

Shokri spent 27 years of his life in the cult-like MKO. He was only 20 years old and willing to find a good job in Europe when he was recruited by the MKO in Iraq. The MKO agents promised to help him get the European visa only if he stayed in their camp for a few months.

As soon as he entered the organization, they confiscated his ID documents and never gave him back.” whenever I asked for my ID, they would say that they had no idea where it was.”

Thus, Shokri had no way out of the MKO camp but he frequently used to ask the leaders when he could leave the cult. This question was considered a sin by the leaders. Departure from the MKO was forbidden and showing your willingness for leaving the group would be faced with suppression, imprisonment and torture. So he was imprisoned in solitary confinement.

Shokri said that they had closed their eyes and took him to a clandestine jail. “They insulted me calling me spy of the Mullah’s regime,” he recounts. “They beat me in my legs so badly that I could not walk; they were bleeding. They tied my hands with hand coughs for a week. After a week my hands had no sense; I put the fire of a cigarette on them but I didn’t feel it burn. Then they forced me to stand up for one more week. Each time that I fell down out of fatigue, they would beat me so hard that I had to stand up again.”

Shokri recalled that after a week his legs were bruised and turned black. Blood did not circulate to his head so he fainted. He showed the scars on his legs to the interviewer.

He was under torture for 45 days. Finally Massoud Rajavi called on the tortured members and threatened them that if they expose what has happened to them and if they intend to leave the group they would be handed over to Iraqi authorities under the regime of Saddam Hussein. This meant that more torture or death would be waiting for them.

Thus, Shokri stayed in the MKO for another 23 years until September 21^st , 2016 that the group leaders finally let him leave.

Mazda Parsi

December 3, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Letter to Ms. Federica Mogherini,

Letter to Ms. Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice‐President of the European Commission

Ms Federica MOGHERINI

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice‐President of the European Commission

Brussels – July 1^st, 2018

Dear Ms Mogherini,

With regards, we are the family of Malek Shara’i. He was captive inside the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA, Rajavi Cult) in Albania. He spent the last 21 years as a modern slave in the organization.

Now after these long years, despite all the futile efforts that we made to see our loved one, we learned that Malek Shara’i, who, according to the evidence had most probably decided to leave the organization, was brutally murdered while trying to escape.

The MEK announced in a statement that Malek had drowned in a reservoir near to the MEK camp in the suburbs of Tirana, but not the slightest sign was found to prove this claim after two weeks of searching by expert divers and local police.

Malek was a professional swimmer as well as having been trained as a diver and lifeguard. Therefore the MEK’s hollow statement that he first saved someone and then later could not save himself is not acceptable.

Unfortunately, the Albanian authorities are silent in this matter, under the pressure of a terrorist cult, and do not make any moves and have even instructed the local police in writing to close the file and announce him as a missing person. No thorough investigation was made inside the MEK camp and among its residents.

Malek is not the first person who has been physically eliminated for opposing the policies and deeds of the cult. Our main concern is that he may not be the last.

We want to know how a terrorist cult can take up residence in a remote place in Europe and have an open hand to eliminate its discontented members. Why have the police and the authorities tried to close this controversial file as soon as possible? Has the body been found or is it known how he was killed that the organization announces him dead?

Ms. Mogherini

We members of Malek’s family (mother, brothers and sisters) urge you to question the Albanian government about why they have given in to a terrorist cult and have stopped the investigations and keep silent about it? The local authorities announced that no corpse has been found in the reservoir and therefore the MEK’s claim is a fabricated lie.

We wish you to intervene and ask the Albanian representatives and authorities, whose country has applied to join the EU, for explanations. The Albanian media have written about this matter but have had no impact at all. They have clearly written that to find the corpse they must look inside the MEK camp and not inside the reservoir. This is something the investigators must now be required to do.

Yours sincerely,

Mother: Masoumeh Torkamani

Brother: Hossein Shara’i

Brother: Jamal Shara’i

Brother: Abbas Shara’i

Sister: Zeinab Shara’i

Sister: Zahra Shara’I

Albania: MEK rebrands by assassinating unwanted members

Massoud Keshmiri

The mysterious disappearance of a member of the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) terrorist group in Albania has once again drawn attention to this controversial group. Malek Sharaee, 47, originally from Khuzestan Province in Iran, was reportedly drowned in the Rrotull village irrigation water reservoir. After three days, divers have not found his body even though the water channel is only 3.5 meters deep. However, a MEK representative and three MEK witnesses say his clothes were found at the water’s edge. Police are now investigating this as a possible criminal offense. Even so, unless they gain access to Camp Ashraf Three, the MEK’s purpose-built training camp in Manez, they are unlikely to unearth the truth – MEK impunity is far greater than this small country can deal with or penetrate.

MEK (aka Saddam’s Private Army) was unknown in Albania until they arrived after 2013. Their bizarre behavior and controversial activities soon became the focus of media attention.

But the MEK’s dark history began long before this. Along with well-publicised military-style terrorist attacks on Iran since the 1980s, the MEK was also trained by Saddam Hussein’s Mukhaberat (Secret Services) and later by Israel’s MOSSAD, in intelligence gathering and secret operations. As a result, MEK has also conducted many covert terror acts and assassinations over the years. Several of these were deliberately staged to make it look like Iran was involved. Such as the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. In spite of extensive investigation, the primary evidence linking Iran came from four high ranking intelligence officers from MEK. In 2011, a man connected to Mexican drug dealers was arrested for the attempted murder of the Saudi Ambassador to America. The US quickly accused Iran, but after two weeks the perpetrator was linked to MEK. In 2013, Israel arrested a Swedish Iranian man, Ali Mansouri, who ‘confessed’ to be spying for Iran in Tel Aviv. He turned out to be a MEK member.

The underlying pattern behind these events is of deception and callous, cynical murder. These examples are not unique. MEK has a long history of highly sophisticated and brutal undercover activity. However, the reported death of Malek Sharaee in Albania this week also points to a new phase in MEK covert activity. This time individual MEK members who were previously involved in known acts of violence are now themselves becoming victims of their own organization.

Internal assassinations are not new – Commander Ali Zarkesh was deliberately killed during a military operation in 1988 because he had become critical of the leadership. There have been hundreds of reports of suspicious deaths and actual murders over the last three decades committed against critics and rivals.

In 2013, former MEK member Massoud Dalili was identified as the 53rd victim of a massacre at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. MEK only acknowledged his death when the Iraqi authorities formally identified him via his DNA. Dalili’s body had been deliberately disfigured (his face and hands burned) to hide his identity. Massoud Dalili had been one of the personal security personnel for leader Massoud Rajavi. He had undergone training with Saddam’s Republican Guards and the MEK’s own specialist training. Before coming to Iraq, Dalili had headed a small MEK team in Gilan Province where he was responsible for scores of deaths, including civilians

Another victim killed during the same attack was Zohreh Ghaemi, She had commanded the assassination of General Sayad Shirazi in 1999. Of the other victims that day, at least ten are known to have participated in known acts of violence for MEK. No one claimed responsibility for the attack on Camp Ashraf.

In 2015, in the Netherlands, Mohamad Reza Kolahi was killed by a criminal gang on the order of MEK. Investigators confirmed that Kolahi was responsible for the 1981 bombing of the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in Tehran in which 72 high-ranking politicians and party members were killed.

Another MEK member, Massoud Keshmiri, responsible for the bombing which killed PM Bahonar and President Rajai in 1981, was last seen with MEK in Germany some years ago. He has since vanished and could be dead. Although these deaths cannot be said to be directly linked, there is a common thread whose purpose becomes clear when we remember 2016 when Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi Intelligence chief, announced the death of MEK leader Massoud Rajavi. It is clear from this that MEK is being purged from top to bottom of all the individuals who have had involvement or are associated with its violent past – rebranding by assassination to make the group legally acceptable.

MEK has become the pattern for how other defeated terrorist groupings can be reinvigorated, rebranded and reused. The controversy following the Bulgarian PM’s announcement that “Albania will become a coordination center for fighters returning from ISIS to the Balkans” may die down soon – Prime Minister Rama later dismissed this as fantasy, but he is not convincing.

Instead, the history of the MEK in Albania indicates that the same scenario will be repeated. As ISIS fighters arrive and settle, the process will start just as it did with MEK. Expect more mysterious murders, suicides, disappearances, bizarre interventions to prevent investigations. And, of course, the involvement of Albanian citizens, politicians, and personalities for and against. Plus, not only abandoning any hope of joining the EU, but suffering more restrictions on the borders with the EU and Balkan countries.

Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh, Balkans Post,

Massoud Khodabandeh is the Director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and has worked long-term with the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult. Khodabandeh co-authored the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf – Victims of Many Masters’ with his wife Anne Singleton.

(END)

June 24, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US Media & The Terrorists Who Cried Wolf

Right-wing, anti-Iranian figures and media in the United States have begun circulating claims that Iran had violated the JCPOA that resulted from the P5+1 nuclear negotiations, and indeed has a nuclear weapons program. Various pro-Israeli and anti-Iranian voices in the US echoed this claim. Mark Toner was even asked about the allegations during a press briefing in April. The source for this allegation was the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for the Mujahadeen E-Khalq (People’s Holy Warriors). Putting aside the group’s shady history, terrorism, and bizarre cultish practices, the claims should have immediately been discredited. Why? These exact same forces were caught lying back in 2015, with similar claims. In 2015, as the nuclear negotiations were nearing their completion, the NCIR published photos of a safe, claiming it was in Iran and contained materials related to a secret nuclear weapons program. The photo the NCIR released was proven to have been taken from a French website selling safes. The group was caught in an obvious lie.

________________________________________

Iran’s nuclear energy program has never been proven to have any military uses. The International Atomic Energy Agency has watched over all of Iran’s nuclear activities, and following the negotiations in 2015, almost all of the peaceful nuclear energy program has been shut down.

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A Bizarre “Islamo-Marxist” Terrorist Cult

The 2015 photo flub was not the first time the MEK has been caught lying about Iran. Over the last ten years they have continued to make claims that they have proof of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. None of their claims have ever been verified. MEK did, however, cooperate with Israel’s Mossad to assassinate peaceful nuclear scientists teaching at Iranian Universities. Who is the source of all these fraudulent claims that continue to be treated with credibility in the US media? So, who is the MEK?The Mujahadeen E-Khalq is a religious/political cult formed in Iran during the 1970s. At the time Iran was led by a US backed dictator, the Shah. While various groups organized resistance to the Shah in the form of guerrilla warfare, strikes, and protests, the MEK conducted adventurist acts of violence and terrorism. In addition to Iranians, Americans were also victims of MEK’s terrorism prior to the Iranian revolution of 1979.

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The Mujahadeen E-Khalq calls its belief system “Islamo-Marxism.” The founder, Masoud Rajavi, claims to be a prophet brought to earth by God in order to usher in some kind of Islamic Communist revolution. MEK’s beliefs could almost be described as an Islamic version of Reverend Jim Jones “People’s Temple,” which reached its peak during the same time period. Like Rajavi, Jones also claimed to be some kind of prophet who could spiritually combine the world’s religions with soviet-style Marxism in order to foment global revolution. Also like the People’s Temple, many people have died as a result of Rajavi’s fanatical and violent organization.

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A History of Terrorism & War Crimes

After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MEK (also called People’s Mujaheddin) briefly aligned with [Ayatollah] Khomeini, hoping they could influence the Iranian revolution from within. After one of their allied clerics was deposed, the MEK launched a bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. In 1981, the MEK bombed a meeting of Iran’s Islamic Republican Party, killing 72 people.

During the Iraq-Iran war, Saddam Hussein began funding and arming the MEK. The MEK formed an armed body called the Iranian National Liberation Army. In 1988, MEK fighters were airdropped into Iran by Iraqi aircraft. Its members proceeded to raze villages, slaughtering, men, women, and children, before ultimately being defeated by the Iranian military. It is estimated that tens of thousands of civilians were killed by MEK fighters during the Iraq-Iran war.

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After the war, MEK set-up shop in Iraq, being coddled by Saddam Hussein’s government. Hussein used the MEK as shock troops to suppress the Kurds and other uprisings against him during the 1990s.

MEK is now headquartered in France, with Maryam Rajavi, the wife of the cult’s founder, claiming to be Iran’s President in exile. During the 1990s, the cult ordered all members to divorce their spouses, as marriage was considered a distraction from achieving the cult’s goal of toppling the Iranian government. MEK’s base of operation, Camp Ashraf in Iraq, has been operated as a kind of mini-police state. According to Human Rights Watch, within Camp Ashraf, the death penalty and torture is frequently used against residents. Reports described individuals being dragged by ropes around their necks, among other routine atrocities.

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The Spirit of the Agreement

Throughout his presidency, the Tea Party and Republicans frequently accused Barack Obama of being a “Muslim” and a “Communist.” Ironically, however, the Mujahadeen E-Khalq is a favored group of the Republican Party, despite being self-described as “Islamo-Marxists.”With the support of Hillary Clinton, the MEK was removed from the list of designated foreign terrorist organization in 2012 by the US State Department. The decision was based on claims that MEK had “renounced violence.” However, at the very time the process of delisting was in the works, MEK assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientists.The fact that the group was caught intentionally using a fake photograph against Iran in 2015, in addition to all of its terrorism and war crimes, should discredit its recent statements about Iran in the US media. However, despite their previous lies and horrendous record, certain US media outfits remain so biased and hostile to Iran, that they still repeat their claims.

While no evidence exists that Iran has violated the JCPOA, Donald Trump recently stated to the press that Iran had violated “the spirit of the agreement.” How does one define “the spirit?” Will Iran be punished for such a subjective crime, despite fulfilling all of its written obligations? Only time will tell.

Grean Villepost.com

June 1, 2017 0 comments

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