Yaser was four years old when he left Iran together with his parents and his two siblings Musa and Fatemeh in 1984. His father Morteza Akbari nasab was a member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI) but his mother Khadije Niknam had no organizational record. Three years later, the young mother –who was only 25– was killed in the MEK’s operation against the Iranian border called “Forough Javidan”; her three young kids were left behind in Camp Ashraf.
The failure of the MEK in Forough Javidan was a pretext for Massoud Rajavi to launch the so-called “Ideological Revolution”. According to the Ideological Revolution, Family was recognized as the obstacle against the group’s success in the operation. Therefore, couples were ordered to divorce and eventually children were dispatched out of Iraq, mostly to European countries.
In 1997, like a lot of other children of the MEK, Yaser 17 and Musa 14, allegedly under the invitation of their father Murteza, were sent back to Camp Ashraf from Europe. The trip was supposed to last six months but it lasted forever!
Fatemeh was lucky enough to find an opportunity to leave the group’s base in Germany and to stay in Europe but she did not succeed to prevent the MEK from taking her brothers to Iraq.
“Yaser and Musa had almost no sympathy for the MEK and so they began to protest against the group’s approach toward members, ”Reza Akbarinasab, the uncle of Fatemeh, Yaser and Musa, writes about his nephews.
Shahram Bahadori a former member of the MEK knew Yaser and Musa when he was in Camp Ashraf. “I was a friend of Yaser, we used to open up for each other,” He writes. “We used to insult the group leaders. Yaser could to get along with the group; he always opposed the commanders. The commanders were mad at him and eventually they scrutinized him all the time.”
However, Yasser keeps on protesting and complaining about the leaders’ attitudes. He writes numerous letters to the group leader Massoud Rajavi asking him to let him leave the camp. “Yaser had completely told me how he had been deceived by the group to bring him back from Germany to Iraq,” Shahram continues. “He used to beshrew the group leaders for they had ruined his future.”
Eventually, in the summer of 2006, Yaser’s valiant character against the MEK leaders cost him his life. “Finally in a summer day, after the members had lunch the smoke from behind the base number seven was seen,” his uncle recounts. “Commanders did not let members see the body of Yasser. It was not made clear that he was killed or committed suicide.”
His comrades were told that he had set himself on fire. “Suddenly we were summoned to Baharestan hall,” Shahram recounts. “Batoul Rajaiee who hardly ever used to handle our meetings was sitting in place of the commander. She looked nervous and aggressive. The atmosphere seemed to be horrifying. It was clear that something bad had happened.”
Batoul Rajaee declared the news of Yaser’s as this: “Yaser did not do a good job. He set himself on fire with tied hands in a trench! Nobody is allowed to talk about him outside this room.”
A few months later Fatemeh, Yaser’s sister and his uncle Reza went to Camp Ashraf to visit Morteza, Musa and the tomb of Yaser. But, they were not permitted to enter the camp, instead, they were faced with beating and insulting even by the side of Morteza. They were labeled as agents of the Iranian Intelligence. Normally, their request to get the medical files of Yasser’s death was not met. Later, the names of Reza and Fateme Akbarinasab were repeated from time to time as the agents of the Islamic Republic by the MEK propaganda media.