January 30, 2006
Letter to:
Court of Justice
Court of First Instance
Rue du Fort Niedergrünewald
L-2925 Luxembourg
To the Judges of the Court of First Instance
At 09:30, on February 7, 2006 in the Second Chamber of the Court of First Instance of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, hearing T-228/02 Organisation des Modjahedines du peuple d’Iran v Council (Common foreign and security policy) will take place. http://curia.eu.int/en/actu/calendriers/index.htm
This action against the Council of the European Union was first brought before the Court on 26 July 2002 by the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) – also known as Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
In simple terms we understand that through this action, the MEK wishes to be removed from the European list of terrorist entities.
Some of the main arguments brought by the MEK are that it is:
Conducting legitimate resistance against the Iranian regime
Complying with the fundamental principles of democracy
Complying with the fundamental principles of respect for human rights
Supported by the international community
Never undertaken actions against civilians
The only resistance movement which is now acting within Iran’s borders
Defending peace in the region
In response, and in opposition to this action, the people signatory to this letter all declare themselves willing and able to bear witness to the facts set out in this letter thus:
1 From its inception, the MEK has been the main anti-western force before and during the 1979 revolution in Iran. The MEK killed six Americans in Iran during the 1960s. During the ‘hostage crisis’ in 1980, the MEK advocated killing the American hostages. The MEK openly took up arms against the regime of Iran again only after a failed coup d’état against the new revolutionary government in 1980.
Since then, the MEK has carried out mortar attacks against civilian targets, resulting in the deaths of shopkeepers, passers by. The MEK has bombed factories, schools and residential areas. The MEK received orders from Saddam Hussein to attack targets chosen by his regime and were paid accordingly.
2 The MEK is organized internally as an autocracy, with Massoud Rajavi the sole, self-appointed leader for life. He occupies the role of supreme leader and is above the law. No one has the right to remove or even criticize his leadership. Below him in rank is his wife Maryam Rajavi, also appointed by Massoud Rajavi. He presented her to the National Council of Resistance (NCR) for ‘election’ to the position of ‘president elect’ of the NCR. The ‘election’ took place in an open meeting in which there was no secret ballot, the vote was 100% in her favour. The NCR comprises at least 95% MEK members who only claim to be independent members but who without exception believe in the MEK ideology.
3 There are countless examples of suppression and repressive measures inside the MEK. The MEK has practiced forced marriage and now practices forced divorce, separation of children from parents, gender apartheid, imprisonment for criticizing leaders or even the leaders’ strategy. Victims inside the MEK have been sent to Abu Ghraib prison. Extrajudicial punishments include torture, death under torture, long term imprisonment in solitary confinement and sentencing to execution – not carried out by express order of Massoud Rajavi. The Human Rights Watch report of May 2005 ‘No Exit’, details only a small sample of such human rights abuses carried out systematically inside the Mojahedin. Former members will bear witness that none of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are practiced inside the MEK organization.
4 The MEK claims to have collected hundreds of signatures from western parliamentarians. However, the names have never been published and no-one has had sight of the signatures. The MEK has a known history of forging signatures. The MEK collects signatures through lies, deception and misinformation. Signatories do not have immediate access to necessary information by which to make balanced judgment about the MEK.
5 There are numerous instances of civilian deaths and injuries caused by the deliberately imprecise methods of armed attack used by the MEK in Iran. The use of mortars, fired in civilian areas, have led to schools, public parks and residential buildings being hit. The largest number of civilians killed by the MEK was in the Eternal Light operation of 1988. In this operation, the organization sent thousands of untrained civilians into battle with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Rajavi’s bid to pursue regime change by armed means. Thousands were killed and injured in this abortive operation. Rajavi is culpable for war crimes based on his orders and decisions during this operation.
6 The MEK is not supported inside Iran – most of Iran’s younger generation have never heard of the MEK except as a historical group which betrayed their country by fighting alongside Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. The MEK does not mention its twenty year existence in Iraq and its dependence on Saddam Hussein during that time. No opposition group (inside or outside Iran) has ever accepted the group which is universally regarded as traitors. The lack of support for them outside country by exiled Iranians is a clear indication of how much support they have inside the country. The only beneficiary of the MEK’s existence has been the hardliners of the Iranian government who refuse to accept any other opposition except them because they are known as assassins and traitors to their country. This allows the hardliners to continue a policy of repression against any legitimate opposition.
7 The MEK’s most recent public stance is to support regime change involving war waged against Iran by the USA or Israel. The MEK’s ‘third way’ states clearly that the MEK can bring about regime change only if its forces in Iraq are re-armed.
Since 2002 many things have changed.
"The Mojahedin Khalq Organisation claims that it rejects armed struggle and commits itself only to non-violent means of struggle and therefore asks the relevant authorities to remove it from the lists of terrorist organizations." The MEK claims that in future it will only engage in political, social and cultural activities against the Iranian regime.
Firstly, this claim has never been made publicly and has only been made in private to the officials involved in this court. Secondly, this is a lie. The MEK has no intention of abandoning armed struggle.
As recently as two months ago the MEK clearly issued death sentences against their critics in European countries. This was broadcast on their clandestine TV program copies of which area available.
The MEK continues to advertise its National Liberation Army (currently disarmed by US forces in Iraq) as the only possible way of achieving regime change in Iran. The MEK openly promotes the use of violence in Iraq, Iran and in western countries.
Information from a source close to the MEK states that the organization is now actively collecting signatures from its members who swear that:
armed struggle is the only possible means to achieve regime change and take power in Iran. (The real meaning of this is the belief that Camp Ashraf in Iraq should be preserved and the combatants re-armed.)
they adhere to every step of the Ideological revolution and pass through it consciously and believe in every part of it. (The real meaning of this is that they accept the conditions of slavery imposed by the MEK’s cult culture.)
they declare total and unswerving loyalty to the ideological leader, who is Massoud Rajavi. (The real meaning of this is that Rajavi will never be removed from leadership of the MEK, thus denying any semblance of a democratic process.)
These three articles, which every member is being asked to affirm and sign to, are exactly the opposite to the conditions necessary to prove their case in this court.
Indeed, the MEK is more committed to these principles than ever in its history as this is the only means by which the organization can be kept intact.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, reams of evidence has come to light concerning the MEK’s behaviour in Iraq and elsewhere. Examples include: video evidence of payments made by Saddam to the MEK in payment for the assassination of specific people; selling oil illegally for Saddam in the west (under the UN oil for food program); involvement in the suppression of the Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in March 1991 which involved the massacre of civilians.
The MEK have never condemned their fallen benefactor Saddam Hussein and refuse to refer to him as anything less than "the ex president of Iraq". The MEK has not cut its ties with the remnants of Saddam in Iraq and elsewhere, including the Baath Party and tribal leaders loyal to Saddam Hussein. The MEK celebrated the 11 September tragedy in their camps in Iraq. The MEK leaders directly ordered members to commit self-immolation in European cities in June 2003, resulting several disabilities and two deaths.
If the MEK wishes to refute the evidence which led to its inclusion in the terrorist lists of every major western country, it must:
1- publicly and unequivocally renounce violence as a means to achieve political aims – including publicly agreeing to the dismantlement of Camp Ashraf in Iraq
2- abandon the practice of collective living, compulsory divorce, separation of people from their children and families, cutting people off from their finances and stop the use of psychological manipulation to indoctrinate members; the MEK must free its members from conditions of slavery.
3- respect democratic principles by holding real elections for the first time – which allow for the removal and replacement of all its leadership cadre through secret ballot; run the organization as a normal political group.
4- provide answers in public to the issues arising from MEK behavior over the past twenty five years, including; the massacre of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds in 1991; the massacre of thousands of civilians in the Eternal Light operation of 1988; the incarceration of dissidents in its own prisons and in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Signatories:
Abbass Sadeghi
Akbar Akbari
Ali Akbar Rastgoo
Ali Bashiri
Ali Ghashghavi
Alireza Mir Esmaili
Alireza Mirasgari
Amir Atefe
Amir Kord-Rostamie
Anne Khodabandeh
Aylar Seraji
Batool Ahmadi
Batool Maleki
Behzad Alishahi
Behzad Kazemi
Daryoush Mir Esmaili
Edward Tormado
Elham Kakavand
Faride Barati
Farhad JavaheriYar
Faride Sadri
Farzad Fazinfar
Fatolah Firooz
Ghasem Ghezi
Gholam Mehdioghli
Habib Khorami
Hadi Shams Haeri
Hanif Baghalnejad
Hassan Azizi
Hassan Haghi
Hassan Khalaj
Hassan Mohamadi
Hassan Sadeghian
Homayoon Elahi
Hossein Baghalnejad
Iraj Haghverdi
Jafar Baghalnejad
Jafar Gonjeshki
Jamshid Tahmasbi
Javad Firoozmand
Karim Haghi
Katayoon Mir Esmaili
Kazem Molahosseini
Khaodabakhsh Rudgar
Majid Farahani
Mahboobe Barati
Masoome Behnam
Massoud Jabani
Massoud Khodabandeh
Marjan Malek
Mehdi Baghalnejad
Mehdi Khoshhal
Milad Ariyayi
Mina Vatandoost
Mitra Yoosefi
Mohamed Hossein Sobhani
Mostafa Mohammadi
Mostafa Mostafai
Naser Haghi
Naser Razvani
Nasrin Behboudi
Omid Ahmadi
Parvin Haji
Maryam Jokar
Rassoul Ahmadi Nejad
Reza Haghi
Robabe Shahrokhi
Ronak Mostafai
Roya Roodsaz
Saeed Khodashenas
Samad Alesiad
Sara Baghalnejad
Shafighe Haghi
Shokat Haghverdili
Soheila Behboodi
Yaser Ezati
Zahra Lotfi
