![\"Gholamreza](\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shekari_Gholamreza.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGholamReza Shekari was twenty years old when he crossed the Iran-Iraq border in order to immigrate to Europe seeking a better life. As his bad luck had it, Iraqi security forces delivered him to the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO\/ MEK\/ PMOI\/ Cult of Rajavi). This was the start of 27 years of detention in the cult-like structure of the MEK. His requests to depart the group was not met as long as they were in Iraq. The group had confiscated his documents and told him that if he left the group, he would end up with torture in Iraqi prison.
\nAfter the group was expelled from Iraqi territory, Shekari was relocated in Albania in 2017 and eventually he asked to leave the group again. He was allowed to leave but he was under the group\u2019s control as far as he was given a monthly payment by the group. In 2018, when he announced that he was not willing to work for MEK, the group cut off his monthly pension. Since then the UNHCR supported him financially.<\/p>\n
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A few months later, Shekari was interviewed by Luisa Hommerich, the correspondent of Der Spiegle. Hommerich\u2019s investigative report on MEK, titled \u201cPrisoners of Their Own Rebellion, The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran\u201d was published in February, 2019. As expected, The Spiegle\u2019s article was labeled as the propaganda of the Iranian Government.<\/p>\n
As Hommerich reports, \u201cGholamreza Shekari, a slender 50-year-old man with bony cheeks, says he spent 27 years as a member of the People\u2019s Mujahedin, adding \u201cthe organization\u2019s public face is liberal. Internally, though, it works by way of lies, manipulation and fear.\u201d\u201d
\n\u201cThey spoke of freedom and democracy for Iran,\u201d Shekari told Hommerich. \u201cAnd then they promised me that they would arrange a visa for Europe for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, 2019, Shekari officially declared his defection from the MEK. His statement of defection that was published by Nejat Society, contained horrific facts about the dark days he had experienced inside the MEK.
\nEventually he began writing in Persian his account of the mental and physical torture he had endured in the MEK\u2019s notorious Camp Ashraf, in a series of articles in Persian. This is an extensive account of what he mentioned about torture by MEK commanders in his interview with the Spiegle.<\/p>\n
Shekari told Spiegle that he repeatedly asked when he would be allowed to leave. \u201cBut that turned out to be a mistake: According to Human Rights Watch, the organization began torturing members who wanted to leave the group or who asked critical questions in the mid-1990s,\u201d Hommerich accurately states.
\n\u201cThey insulted me as a spy, beat my shins until they were bloody and put out burning cigarettes on my skin,\u201d he told Hommerich. \u201cAfter a week, he says, his lower legs were completely black. He rolls up his jeans to reveal scars covering his legs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides the strict regulations of the Cult of Rajavi that required absolute obedience, According to Shekari and many other defectors such as Bahman Azami, Adel Azami, Nader Naderi, Nader Chapachap, in 1994 and 1995, dozens of members of the group were imprisoned in groups and in solitary confinement, tortured and even killed by the commanders of the group. Defectors revealed the names of some of the torturers of the Cult of Rajavi. Mokhtar Jannat, Majid Alamian, Mahvash Sepehri, Assadollah Mosana, mohammad Eqbal and some other high-ranking members of the group were in charge of interrogating, beating and torturing the imprisoned members who did not even know what their accusation was.<\/p>\n
After months of torture and imprisonment, Shekari told the Spiegle, \u201cthe leader Masoud Rajavi gathered all those who had been tortured\u201d. \u201cHe threatened that if we ever spoke about it, we would be handed over to the Iraqis, which would mean additional torture or death,\u201d Shekari added.<\/p>\n
The group still claims that Shekari and other former members are agents to spread the disinformation of the Iranian Government. \u201cThe organization claims that we are all agents so that nobody believes us,\u201d he told the Spiegle. \u201cBut I\u2019m not working for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Gholarmreza](\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Shokri_Gholamreza.jpg\")
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This is just a short part of four episodes of Shekari\u2019s memoirs of torture and imprisonment in Camp Ashraf: GholamReza Shekari was twenty years old when he crossed the Iran-Iraq border in order to immigrate to Europe seeking a better life. As his bad luck had it, Iraqi security…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[14,161,24557,33],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[3],"class_list":["post-13176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cult-rajavi","tag-defectors-of-mujahedin-khalq","tag-membership-mko","tag-shekari","tag-tortur-and-harasment-in-mujahe","module-article","ctype-story","blog-nejat-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13176"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=13176"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=13176"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=13176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cMajid Alamian and Mokhtar Janat, the two torturers and slaughterers received me\u2026They took off my clothes. I was completely naked when Mokhtar began beating me. He gave me pajamas to put on. Again, they started beating on my head. I raised my arms to cover my head, he kicked me in the back. Then the major commander, who was called Kak Adel, came and told them to take me to the cell. They covered my eyes and took me around the place. Finally, they uncovered my eyes in a cell where about ten other of my comrades had been jailed<\/em>.\u201d
\nThis was the start of Shekari\u2019s five-months imprisonment, interrogation and torture in the Cult of Rajavi. He was under the most severe mental and physical pressures from January to May, 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"