The 26th court session to investigate the charges against 104 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) the nature of this organization as a legal entity, was held publicly on Tuesday (January 8) in Branch 11 of the Criminal Court of a Tehran province, presided over by Judge Amir Reza Dehghani and court advisors Morteza Turk and Amin Nasseri, in the presence of a minister representing the prosecutor, the families of the victims and their lawyers, as well as the lawyers of the defendants.
Following the previous session, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Kazemi, discussed the operations carried out by the MEK, which included the torture and killing of a number of civilians. The lawyer asked the eyewitness to take the stand and testify about the victims and the accused ones of this crime.
Akbar Kabiri, one of the witnesses in this trial, after taking the oath said, “Taleb Taheri was a teenager, about 17 years old. He was short, had no features, and was very lively and active.”
According to his testimonies Khosro Zandi was the MEK agent who was charged with disappearing the bodies of the three killed victims of the Engineering Operation including Taleb. “There is a video of the discovery of the bodies of these three victims at the location announced by Khosrow Zandi,” he said.
Addressing the first defendant, the legal entity of the MEK and 104 other defendants in the case, the judge said: “International treaties on combating terrorism allow countries where terrorist acts have taken place to have their domestic courts have the authority to hear these charges and crimes.” This public trial is being held in the presence of members of the media and news agencies, and it was revealed that the organization and some of the defendants were fully aware of the trial and are commenting on it.”
He added, “I once again announce to Massoud Rajavi and the other defendants in the 26th session of the court, today we are hearing the charge of torturing a 17-year-old teenager. Your lawyers are present in court.”
The plaintiffs’ Lawyer said: “The legislator has criminalized four instances of forming, planning, organizing, and managing a criminal group. According to legal rules, a person who leads another person to commit a crime is considered an accessory to a crime. In other words, leadership of a criminal group is a specific crime; if the crime is committed by members of the group and the person who formed the group is prosecuted as leadership.”
A former member of the MEK, Jalilian also testified, he regarded Massoud Rajavi as the main person to order the atrocities the group agents committed. He told the court, “If someone in the MEK wants to drink water, it is impossible for Rajavi not to know. He issued his orders throughout the organization. They have a trained organizational cadre. It was not like they tortured someone and Massoud Rajavi was unaware.”
The next session of the court hearings to investigate the crimes of the MEK and its leaders will be held on January 21.