Letters

Letter from the CEO of Nejat Society to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs

Ebrahim Khodabandeh, CEO of Nejat Society, Iran, wrote a letter to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, calling on her to raise with the Albanian authorities the issue of abuse of the most basic human rights of members and former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) in Albania.

The text of the letter is as follows:
Ms Ylva Johansson
European Commissioner for Home Affairs
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
cab-johansson-contact@ec.europa.eu
Friday 19 February 2021

Greetings and kind regards,
I was informed that you are going to Albania today for a two-day visit and that you are meeting with high-ranking Albanian officials about the country’s entry into the European Union. Visiting the Greek border with Albania is also included in your schedule.

On behalf of the suffering families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) in Albania, I would like to inform you that this organization, which is run as a destructive mind control cult led by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, was transferred to Albania in 2016 and the members are held in a remote and isolated camp in Manzë, in Durrës county, western Albania.

Members of the Rajavi cult do not have the right to communicate with their families due to the cultic internal relations, and some of their elderly mothers and fathers have been kept unaware of the situation of their loved ones in the MEK for decades. Not only have they not been allowed any meetings and have not heard their children’s voices, but they have not even received any message from them.

Last year, a petition to the Albanian government was organized by these families at Change.org – which was signed in a matter of weeks by more than 11,250 relatives, friends and acquaintances of the residents in the MEK camp in Albania – calling for the possibility of getting in touch with them and learning about their health and welfare.

Urging Albanian government to let the families to contact their loved ones in MEK camp

Hundreds of separate letters have been sent by families to various Albanian government officials, including Prime Minister Edi Rama, but no response has been received. At the request of the MEK leaders, the Albanian government does not grant visas to Iranian nationals to visit the country, so they cannot pursue their demands on the spot through the judiciary there.

Some MEK members have now left the cult but are under severe financial pressure because they are not supported by the Albanian government or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and do not have identity documents, work permits or refugee status. The Rajavi Cult’s goal, in cooperation with the Albanian government, is to force them to follow the MEK’s demands. The leaders of the organization also threatened to kill these individuals and the Albanian citizens and journalists who helped them, and have waged psychological warfare against them, and in some cases created legal problems for them.

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, families have become increasingly concerned about their children’s welfare. Dozens of members of the organization have reportedly died from the disease in recent weeks. Communal living and the lack of access by health officials to the camp have created dangerous conditions for the members.

Albanian public opinion, especially among the residents of Manzë and Durrës, is very concerned about the presence of a terrorist organization in their territory; a group which has been expelled from Iraq for activities that contravened national security there, and which now has an open hand to operate in their country. Many media outlets and human rights activists in Albania have warned of the presence of this terrorist cult, which violates even the most basic rights of its own members.

During this period, suspicious killings took place inside the MEK camp, including the death of Malek Shara’i, but unfortunately the local police were kept from pursuing their investigations. There is also information that the MEK is involved in organized crime in Albania, including money laundering and human trafficking, as well as weapons and drugs smuggling.

Two years ago, Mostafa Mohammadi and his wife, Canadian citizens, went to Tirana to visit their daughter, Somayeh Mohammadi, who is in the MEK camp. They were beaten by elements of the Rajavi cult, and unfortunately not only were their complaints not dealt with, but they were expelled from the country and could not return and pursue the matter through the judiciary.

When visiting the Greek border with Albania, please keep in mind that Ehsan Bidi, a former member of the MEK, was taken to the Greek border without any charges after a year of illegal detention for refusing to cooperate with the organization. He was rescued with the help of other former members, human rights activists and lawyers. He is being held in illegal detention again.

The cases of Ehsan Bidi and Mostafa Mohammadi and Malek Shara’i and dozens of other cases and the suspicious murders that were left uninvestigated show, above all, the corruption of the police, the judiciary and even the media, that Albania is now a safe haven for criminals. And now terrorists have arrived on European soil.

I urge you, as a European Union official, to ask the Albanian government and authorities in your meetings what their response is to the families of the members of the MEK in Albania. Why should the MEK be able to cut off its members from the outside world, especially their families? Why do they not have the right to leave the camp, the right to marry and start a family, and the right to a personal and individual life?

I am eagerly awaiting your response.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh
Nejat Society CEO
Tehran, Iran

February 20, 2021 0 comment

European Union

Please raise the issue of the MEK presence in Albania with them

On Saturday, 20 February, you are scheduled to meet the President of the Republic of Albania, Ilir Meta; Prime Minister, Edi Rama; Minister of Interior, Bledi Cuçi; and the leader of the opposition, Luzlim Basha.

Please raise the issue of the Mojahedin- Khalq (MEK) presence in Albania with them.

In 2016, 2,901 individual MEK members were transferred to Albania from Iraq by the UNHCR. Although classified as “refugees”, they were not granted legal documentation in Albania – they do not have ID cards, work permits, travel permits, etc. This has left them dependent on the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi for their subsistence. In Albania, as in Iraq, they are held in a closed camp in conditions of modern slavery. The systematic application of coercive control means they are not able to make independent, informed decisions about their health and welfare or their economic and social activity. Even if they were, the barriers to escaping the MEK are great.
When the MEK’s irresponsible response to the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the lives of the members, their families appealed to the UN Commission on Enforced Disappearances to make contact with individual members so they could ascertain the health and welfare of their loved ones. This has not yielded results. Families are still denied contact with the MEK camp residents by the leader Maryam Rajavi. Albania’s health officials are still denied access to the camp to check on conditions there.

The MEK presence in Albania has caused controversy. The MEK modus operandi means top level politicians of all parties, as well as media leaders and police and security have been co-opted into supporting the MEK’s anti-Iran agenda as policy. The politicisation of the MEK presence in Albania has come at a high cost to the individual members, to Albanian security, to the democratic and judicial processes of the country, and to foreign policy decisions which have resulted in Albania unnecessarily becoming the front line of the conflict between the EU and Iran.

Local residents near the MEK camp have protested several times about the impunity and preferential treatment of the camp against their own interests. Electricity and water suppliers prioritise the MEK camp leaving them with intermittent supplies, human sewage from the camp has been pumped onto agricultural land, and land earmarked for the expansion of the local cemetery has been appropriated so that MEK dead are buried in preference to the residents’ relatives. The situation in untenable whereby the natural rights and interests of local Albanian citizens are subordinated to the activities and demands of a foreign political cult.

Political leaders in Albania must be held to account for this anomaly. They must answer for MEK impunity and MEK interference in the running of the country.

When you go to the Kakavia border crossing with Greece, where you will visit the Frontex-Albania joint border control operation, please be aware of the attempted illegal deportation of an Iranian refugee across that border last year at the behest of the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Bidi_Ehsan_Greece_Border.mp4

Ehsan Bidi, who came to Albania as a refugee (not with the MEK) and has been granted the right to residency, is currently being held in detention. Ehsan Bidi is – among many other former MEK members – an outspoken critic of Maryam Rajavi. In response, she demanded his deportation. Bidi was held in detention without charge or recourse to legal representation for a year. After which the national police tried illegally dumping him at the Greek border. After the intervention of friends and lawyers, Bidi was brought back to Tirana. Only for him to be detained again ‘pending deportation’. Since there is no possibility of this ever happening, the treatment of Bidi (who, as I remind you has been granted the right to residency), can only be classed as cruel and unusual treatment under the articles of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The only possible reason for this treatment is to suit the demand of Maryam Rajavi to eliminate critics.

Political leaders in Albania should explain why and how this foreign political cult has gained such influence over Albania’s political, judicial, security and media bodies that it threatens the national interests of that country and its people. Maryam Rajavi has been expelled from France and is not able to visit any EU country. The reasons for this are based on security and political considerations. It is inconceivable that with the MEK established in Albania and infecting every element of government, the EU will accept Albania’s accession to the EU of which you are a representative.

In 2013, when Joe Biden was Vice President in the Obama administration, a deal was struck by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to de-radicalise the MEK once they arrived in Albania. Under the Trump administration this plan was shelved, allowing the MEK to regroup and continue its nefarious practices. It may be possible that your report could contain the recommendation that this programme be resumed. This would relieve Albania of the onus to act unilaterally against the MEK. It would allow Albania’s accession to move forward. It would alleviate relations between the US, EU and Iran. More than anything it would restore basic human rights to the MEK members trapped in this cult with no hope and no future.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)

February 20, 2021 0 comment

European Union

Iranian diplomat was set up using a demented woman and her small cult

The European Union is a peculiar construct. The idea behind its establishment was to — by jam-packing different political and economic units into one giant entity — create a powerhouse that is politically and economically uniform and competitive. But the result has been an unwieldy structure that struggles to impose unity on its components on matters of internal and external policy and that is submissive to traditional power players, including those inside the Union itself.

Germany and France, among the world’s top 10 economies, seem to lay an outsized claim to authority as political and economic decision-makers in the EU, even though the bloc has appointed senior representatives for policymaking. All the while, poorer, outlying members differ on policy and budget assignment.

That disequilibrium has been on display in the EU’s approach toward Iran, too. While the Union’s high representative for foreign policy seems to be in favor of sound diplomacy with Iran, individual member states, mostly the more powerful ones, have been singing their own tune.

The latest instance is the case of an Iranian diplomat who has been accused of involvement in an alleged bomb plot in Europe. Diplomat Assadollah Assadi, posted originally to EU member Austria, was arrested in EU member Germany in 2018 and was moved to EU member Belgium, where authorities claimed they had intercepted him communicating with alleged suspects planning to bomb a gathering of anti-Iran cultists in France, also an EU member.

Those countries are using their membership in the Union to easily have Mr. Assadi arrested in one member state and move and try him in another, but are conveniently refusing to acknowledge his diplomatic immunity on the grounds that it applies only to one member state, namely Austria. Essentially, they are being EU members when prosecuting Mr. Assadi but unconnected individual units when it comes to acknowledging his immunity.

That duplicitous behavior is confounded when juxtaposed with the position of the Union’s top representative for foreign and security policy, Josep Borrell, who has said he seeks “maximum diplomacy” with Iran.

I asked Belgian Ambassador to Tehran Véronique Petit to comment on the apparent confliction of positions for this article. She declined via the Belgian Embassy on the grounds that it is a “judicial case,” even though the matter is political and she represents all branches of the Kingdom of Belgium in Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry says the unlawful jail term issued in Belgium against an Iranian diplomat is a clear violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

It is worth noting that the accusation against Mr. Assadi is that he was involved in a bomb plot against an anti-Iran group known as the MKO, or more commonly the MEK, a small cult of deranged individuals who have spent most of their lives confined to camps wishing to topple the Iranian government. Their leader, a demented woman who teaches celibacy and armed opposition to Iran, views herself as Iran’s president-in-waiting. The Israeli regime is known to have tapped healthier MKO members to conduct terror attacks inside Iran.

Of course Iran has rejected the accusation against Mr. Assadi and demanded his swift release. (The international convention protecting his diplomatic immunity is, ironically, named after the capital of the European country where he was posted to.) His prosecution comes at a time when there are hopes the parties to the Iran deal could move to revive the agreement in light of the change of administration in the United States. When Mr. Borrell advocated “maxim diplomacy” with Iran, he said it should replace the former Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the country.

That is a long way from happening. But Mr. Borrell has seemed eager to work to that end. He has already traveled to Russia and China, the two parties to the deal that are not Western-aligned. Crucially though, the simple question is: who is he speaking for when he speaks of “maximum diplomacy” with Iran while Union members are holding an Iranian diplomat?

The Union may justify by saying it cannot impose policy on individual members, which would take us back to the inherent absurdity at the heart of the EU. If Union members can do something that is contrary to stated Union policy, how can they exist as a union?! The EU can either want to pursue “maximum diplomacy” with Iran or hold an Iranian diplomat hostage. It cannot do both at the same time.

By Hossein Jelveh

(Hossein Jelveh is an independent Iranian journalist based in Tehran. He has graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran. You can follow him on Twitter @hossein_jelveh.)

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

February 20, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Everywhere prisoners are allowed family visit, why not in the MEK?

Ms. Zahra Shahbaz Mansouri, daughter of Reza Shahbaz Mansouri, based in the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) Camp in Albania, wrote a letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Albania expressing concern about her father’s health and calling for an investigation.

The text of the letter is as follows:

Representative of the WHO in Albania

Greetings and best regards,

I am Zahra Shahbaz Mansouri, daughter of Reza Shahbaz Mansouri.
My father is currently in the MEK camp in Albania. He left Iran years ago to find a job and more income. We later found out that he was deceived by the elements of the MEK and transferred to Iraq.

In all these years, we have not met him or even heard his voice, and it is the ultimate wish of every child to be able to communicate with his father and be informed of his condition.

You know that even in the most dreadful prisons in the world, and in the case of the most dangerous prisoners, families are allowed to contact the prisoner. But we are also deprived of this minimum possibility of meeting.
Who can help us deprived families? To which international body should we take our grievances to support us? Does anyone in the world pay attention to our rights?

Most importantly, my father has the infection of Covid-19 virus at the MEK camp in Albania and he is in critical condition. The sanitary facilities inside the camp are not so good due to the closed group life and many deaths have been reported so far.

I desperately ask you not to neglect any action that can be taken to alleviate my family’s worries.please help us get news of my father conditions and be allowed to contact him.

Surely you know a child’s worries about his father when he is sick. Please understand how we must be feeling and do not hesitate to pursue this issue.

Thanks and best regards,
Zahra Shahbaz Mansouri
Mashhad, Iran

Copy to:
Office of the Prime Minister of Albania
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

February 17, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

On my brother’s abduction or disappearance

Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Greetings and best regards,
Regarding my brother Mustafa Nourishad, son of Morteza, I Mojtaba Nourishad lodged a complaint against the Albanian government with the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances under the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, of which the Albanian government is a signatory.

After a long time, I was given forms that I filled out and sent along with the required additional documents.
I then received a reply that the subject of my complaint had been referred to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) for further investigation, and they concluded that there was insufficient reason for the Albanian government to be responsible for my brother’s abduction or disappearance.
According to the following information:

The identity of the person forcibly disappeared: Mustafa Nourishad, son of Morteza

Mostafa Nurishad

When he disappeared: About 15 years ago, when he was 19 and a university student, he left home and there was no news of him. An advertisement was published in the newspaper at the time for his disappearance. After years of ignorance, it became known through some former members that he was in Camp Ashraf in Iraq in the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO), with whom it was not possible to have any contact.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, we were able to travel to Iraq and approach Camp Ashraf, but the officials of the organization did not cooperate. In Iraq, we also went to the UN office, which did not help and they did not help either. We were then informed that the organization, along with all its members, had been transferred to Albania and had been stationed in a remote and isolated camp with no contact with its members.

Where he disappeared: He first disappeared in Iran, but we later learned that he had been tricked into Iraq and joined the MEK, and then transferred to Albania with this organization.

Country responsible for his disappearance: Certainly, based on the evidence obtained, the MEK is responsible for his disappearance, which is now fully supported by the Albanian government. It should be noted that according to the UN Convention, governments supporting organizations responsible for a person’s disappearance should be questioned.

Complainant’s identity and relationship: Mojtaba Nourishad, brother of the missing person

It is necessary to emphasize a few points:
Since we received information that Mustafa Nourishad is in the MEK camp in Albania, we and hundreds of other families have sent numerous letters to various officials in the country, including Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is also the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, but did not receive any response.

The families of the MEK members prepared a 550-page petition addressed to the Albanian authorities with more than 11,000 signatures and submitted it to the Albanian embassy in Paris, requesting an opportunity to find out about their missing loved ones, to which no response has been received so far from the Albanian government.

We and other families tried to obtain Albanian visas to travel to Albania and seek information from our missing loved ones through local authorities, but unfortunately we learned that the Albanian government has gone so far to support the MEK that at the request of this organization, it refuses to issue visas to Iranian citizens.

Therefore, as a last resort and reference, we complained to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances. It should be noted that our complaint is not against the MEK, but against the Albanian government, which supports this organization and leaves them openhanded to forcibly keep our loved ones in captivity.

Hundreds of families in Iran and in other countries are in a similar situation to us, and the United Nations should step in and ask the Albanian government, which is currently in charge of the MEK, to allow us to communicate with our missing loved ones in Albania. Therefore, I request that our complaint be re-examined and the information provided be taken into account.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to your response.
Mojtaba Nourishad
Karaj – Alborz Province – Iran

February 15, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Why the Albania gov. do not give the MEK members’ families visa?

Mohammad Ebrahim Haddadi Moqaddam expressed concern about the health of his brother Mahmoud Haddadi Moqaddam

Mr. Mohammad Ebrahim Haddadi Moqaddam, brother of Mahmoud Haddadi Moqaddam, trapped in the MEK camp in Albania, wrote a letter to the World Health Organization in Albania expressing concern over his brother’s health.

World Health Organization

The text of the letter is as follows:

Representative of the World Health Organization in Albania
Greetings and best regards
I am Ebrahim Haddadi Moqaddam, brother of Mahmoud Haddadi Moqaddam. My brother is now in a closed, remote camp of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in Albania with no connections to the outside world.
It is needless to say that my family and I have not seen or heard from my brother for many years, and we have not even received a message from him, and this always bothers us.

Now the news worries us a lot, and that is that on the one hand my brother is probably infected with the Covid-19 virus and he is in a very severe condition, and on the other hand the health conditions inside the camp are extremely unfavorable.

We, the family of Mahmoud Haddadi Moqaddam, have no desire other than hearing his voice and learning about his health. Of course, Albania does not give us visas in support of the MEK and does not allow us to travel. The MEK does not even allow a single phone call to its members.

I urge you not to neglect any action that is conceivable and fruitful in order to alleviate the concerns of me and my family, so that news of my brother reaches us and communication is possible.

You must know very well how a brother feels in such a situation. Is it acceptable to prevent MEK members from communicating with their families in these circumstances? Isn’t this a clear violation of basic human rights?

Mohammad Ebrahim Haddadi Moqaddam
Torbat Heydariyeh – Khorasan Razavi – Iran

Copy to:
Office of the Prime Minister of Albania
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

February 11, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

I am concerned over my son’s health conditions at MEK Camps

In a letter to the head of the WHO and the Albanian government, Mr. Motaleb Babaei Chamazkati expressed concern about his son Houshang Babaei Chamazkati, who was detained in the MEK camp in Albania, and asked him to contact his family.

mek in labania and the coronavirus

Honorable President of the World Health Organization
Greetings
I am Motaleb Babaei Chamazekti, the father of Houshang Babaei Chamazekti. My son has been a prisoner of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) for more than thirty years and now lives in the organization’s camp in Albania.

I do not have any information about my son’s condition because the MEK does not allow my son to call his family and we are now unaware of his health.

This is a matter of great concern to me and my family, given the widespread wave of the Coronavirus in the MEK camp in Albania and the deaths of several people in recent weeks.

As the WHO Official I ask you as well as the Albanian government to intervene in the situation of the MEK camp in Albania, because this organization does not allow anyone to enter the camp, and this is very worrying. You are aware that the coronavirus can cause many casualties in closed environments and in public life, such as the MEK camp in Albania.

I would also ask you to enquire the officials of the MEK to allow my son to call his family so that after a few decades we can hear his voice and be informed of his health.

Thanks
Motaleb Babaei Chamazketi
Ghaemshahr – Mazandaran – Iran

February 9, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Family appeal for supervision over health conditions on MEK camps

To whom it may concern,
I, Ahmad Rezaei Torghi, have not heard of my brother Hojjat Rezaei Torghi, for the thirty past years. He is a member of the Mojahedin Organisation and is currently a resident of Camp Ashraf 3 based in Albania. In the current circumstances, where visas are not issued to Iranians by the embassy of Albania, we can not be informed of my brother’s health and well-being personally.

Following the collective follow-up of the families, the complaints raised to the officials of the Albanian government, regarding the follow-up and surveillance of this matter, we have not been able to receive an answer so far and we have no way to contact my brother in Albania to find out about his condition. With the sabotage and opposition of the leaders of the Mojahedin Organization to connect the members with their families and preventing the supervision of the Human Rights Organization and the World Health Organization to solve these problems, it has created many concerns for us.

We recently learned that following the outbreak of the corona virus, people living in Camp Ashraf 3 of the Mojahedin Organization, are suffering from corona disease and some of them have died. Due to the large population living in that base, which apparently due to lack of proper ventilation, their collective life in terms of health, are at risks of disease outbreak and death.

Therefore, we are worried about my brother Hojjat Rezaei. Therefore, we ask the relevant authorities to follow up on the residents of the camp with the necessary investigations, so that we can be informed about the health of my brother Hojjat by phone or video communication.
We will be grateful if you respond to the concerned families of these people.

Wishing the release of all the residents of Ashraf 3 base in Albania and thanking all the ones who help us in this humanitarian matter.

Sincerely,

Ahmad Rezaei Torghi
Iran – Mashhad

February 8, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

An awaiting mother seeks help from the Albanian government

Mansoureh Mahboub, the awaiting mother of Mohammad Keshmiri trapped in the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) camp in Albania, wrote a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama requesting him to find her missing son in that country and let her to contact him.

The text of the letter, a copy of which has been sent to various UN and European Union bodies and made available to the media for public information, is as follows:

Mohammad Keshmiri mum

Excellency Mr. Edi Rama
Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania
I am Mansoureh Mahboub, the mother of Mohammad Keshmiri. My son was born in 1967. He was captured by Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq War in 1989 and transferred to a POW camp. He was in the POW camp in Iraq for a year and a half, during which time he sent regular letters through the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and we were aware of his condition and gave him letters. But after this period, his letters were not received. We later learned that my son had been deceived by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) and taken to their camp in Iraq.

POWs returning home after the Iran-Iraq ceasefire told us that the conditions in the POW camp in Iraq were extremely difficult, and then MEK envoys appeared as Iranians who had come to help the prisoners, and some who did not recognize them were deceived with the promise of going to Europe and having a job and a prosperous life, and they went with them and ended up into Ashraf garrison, where there was no way to go back.
We were unaware of my son for many years, until after the fall of Saddam Hussein, we learned through detached members that he was still in Camp Ashraf. With a lot of difficulties, we managed to go to Iraq and approach to Camp Ashraf. My husband, my younger son, and I were there for a week. Mohammad came to see us sometimes. In no way did they leave him alone with us, and there were always two officials among us. Mohammad always wore a military uniform and boots. I said to him,”My son, why did your letters come while you were in the POW camp, but we did not hear from you after that?”He hinted us that they were not allowed to have contact with their families in the MEK camp.

The officials of the organization were always among us and constantly talked to us and tried to recruit us. They asked us for money to help the MEK. I refused to donate and said I had no money to give you. I brought some bags full of souvenir for my son. At the moment of farewell, they did not let me hug and kiss my son. They did not allow us to get too close to him at all. They have been trying to recruit my little boy for so long. We were asked to cooperate with them in intelligence and financial way when we returned to Iran. Then I understood why they had agreed Mohammad to meet with us.

After we returned from Iraq, the members of the organization called my little boy and asked him to work for them in Iran and eventually join the MEK in Iraq. But my son refused to have contact with them. The MEK initially agreed to meet with their families in the presence of the organization’s officials in the hope of attracting families and gaining manpower and financial resources, but when they saw that they could not get anywhere this way, they completely banned any contact with the families.

Years later, I learned that the MEK had gone to Albania. Of course, my son also must have gone with them and now lives in the isolated and remote camp of this organization in Albania. We have been unaware of my son Mohammad for many years. His father, who is very ill, and I are always worried about him and we beg God that our child has a good future after all this suffering of captivity and years of separation. Mohammad’s father had a stroke and underwent heart surgery. I’m sick too and we’re just hoping to see our loved one alive.

I have been informed that the Albanian government is one of the signatories of the”United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance”. According to the convention, the Albanian government is responsible for the actions and behavior of the MEK, which is based in that country, to the “Working Group of the Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances”, the “Committee on Enforced Disappearances” and the “UN High Commissioner for Human Rights”. Meanwhile, your government does not grant visas to Iranian citizens at the request of the MEK, and therefore we are not able to travel and follow up on the issue in your country.

My son is a forced and involuntary disappeared person who can be traced and contacted only through the MEK and by the government and officials of the Republic of Albania. Mohammad’s Father and I desperately urge you, the head of the Albanian government, to provide maximum assistance in this way and to provide a way for us to get in touch with our loved one to find out about his condition, especially in the current situation of the Covid-19 virus pandemic.

Attached are photos and particulars.
Thank you for your efforts
Mansoureh Mahboub
Tehran Iran
1 – 2 – 2021

February 7, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Ms. Akhlaqi Azadpour expressed concern over the health of his son in the MEK camp

Ms. Effat Akhlaqi Azadpour, the suffering mother of Mohammad Tavakkoli, who is trapped in the MEK camp in Albania, wrote a letter on behalf of herself and her daughters to the World Health Organization in Albania, expressing concern about her son’s health and calling for the removal of obstacles to receive his health conditions.

Mohammad Tavakoli Mum

The text of the letter is as follows:

Representative of the World Health Organization in Albania

Greetings and respect,
I am Effat Akhlaqi Azadpour, the mother of Mohammad Tavakkoli, who is now in a closed and remote camp of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in Albania with no connection to the outside world.

Mohammad’s sisters and I have not seen or contacted him for many years, and we have not even received a message from him, and this always hurts us severely.

But now the news worries us a lot, and that is that my son is probably infected with the Covid-19 virus and is living in a severe condition, and the health conditions inside the camp is also unfavorable.

As a mother, I have no dreams at the end of my life other than hearing my son’s voice and hearing about his health. I am not able to travel due to old age and illness, and of course Albania does not allow me to do so. But why is it impposible for the MEK members to make a phone call or send a letter?

I ask you not to neglect any action that is conceivable and fruitful in order to allay the concerns of the old mother and the expectant sisters of Mohammad Tavakkoli, so that news of him reaches us and communication is possible.

There must be fathers and mothers among your staff who are always worried about their children and asking about their condition when they are sick. So you know very well how a mother or a sister feels about this. Is it justified to prevent members of the MEK from contacting their families?

With respect
Effat Akhlaqi Azadpour, Akram and Fatemeh Tavakkoli
Iran, Mashhad

Copy to:
Office of the Prime Minister of Albania
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

February 3, 2021 0 comment

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