In l985 the mujahedin leader Massoud Rajavi took over and married a woman called Maryam whose role was to encourage women to break away from male control. As a feminist, this appealed to me. They had used bombers from the early 1980s. They said they wanted to break the atmosphere of terror by killing their oppressors, and it seemed noble.
when you were born, your father was sent on duty to Sweden by MKO and your mother who was a British woman and had married your father when they were students, went to Sweden to show her daughter to her husband and asked to meet your father. Meanwhile your father demanded his responsible to visit his daughter, the responsible replied that he can go but they have a lot of works to do. Then your father felt ashamed …When my father was a Mujahed he could visit me only four or five times.
Masoud Banisadr is an Iranian historian and political analyst. He is a former senior member of the Iranian opposition group the Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organization (MEK), and was its representative in the United States from 1990-96. Banisadr left the MEK in in June 1996 and has lived in London since. …I am sad for the organization’s members and supporters and those who lost their lives on this path. I am also sad to see the organization in its current state, when they are fighting for survival and have abandoned all their original core principles..
The Mojahadin-e Khalq was proscribed in the UK in March 2001.
My right hon. Friend the then Home Secretary decided to proscribe this group because it met the criteria under the terrorism legislation. This decision was endorsed by Parliament.
The list of proscribed organisations is kept under constant review. Under section 4(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 an organisation or affected person may apply to the Home Secretary for an organisation to be deproscribed
Dr. Howells: The Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEK) is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom. The MEK appears on the list of persons, groups and entities which are subject to restrictive measures with a view to combating terrorism under Council Regulation 2580/2001-EC. The Court of First Instance of the European Communities is currently scrutinising the process by which the MEK was included on that list, and the UK has made representations to the Court. Judgment in that case is awaited.
In an interview with Radio Farda’s Ali Sajjadi, he referred to his membership in the MKO and said:”if a window is opened to the outside world, all MKO members would leave and 100 would barely remain.”
MKO announced that Mr. Abbaslou has never been a member of the organization and that he had been expelled to the US-run camp (next to Camp Ashraf). State Department lists MKO as a FTO.
I had some friends in the camp. I had no future in the American camp. It was an ambiguous future, therefore I and four of my friends could escape the camp July 6, 2005.
I personally thank the US forces, but the reality is that the cult has remained in Iraq due to the problems of the coalition forces.
MEK is listed as a terrorist group. They were involved in some pretty awful and bloody incidents, including — involving American citizens.
On November 10, we held a press conference in London titled “Saddam’s Relations with International Terrorism” and a number of media took part in the event. Unfortunately, some MKO members came to attack the participants, but they failed as the police came to the scene. A reporter, however, leaving the place was assaulted by MKO members. I expected the NCRI to release a statement, apologizing for what they had done, but instead they started threatening their opponents
In 1980, while I was studying medicine in AncÔne, Italy. Therefore, I joined the Iranian youth supporting Islamic Revolution against Shah. I established some relations with Mujahedin Khalq since they were the only movement making news in Iran’s political scene…At first I sold Mujahedin’s publications to Iranians who lived in AncÔne . Then they took the collected money. Since I could speak Italian fluently, they sent me to diplomatic committee in Rome, in 1984. We were settled in “Nomentania” which was not far from Iranian and Libyan embassies.