Soheil Khattar, nicknamed Sasha, was a young boy when, in 2001, he went to Iraq to join the Mujahedn Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). A relative of theirs, from Netherlands, had advised Soheil and his cousin Mehran to immigrate to Europe via the MEK in Iraq.
However, they were forcedly recruited by the MEK and taken as hostages in Camp Ashraf. Soheil was mysteriously killed in the Camp, a few years later.
It took his parents, Teymour Khattar and Afsaneh Minayee, a while to learn about Soheil’s death. They went to Camp Ashraf in March, 2008. They wanted to take Soheil’s body but the MEK leaders only showed them the grave.”They gave us a very short time to visit Soheil’s grave”, his father says.”We complained and warned them that we would sue them in Iraqi judiciary.”Consequently, the parents filed a lawsuit against the MEK leaders in Iraq but it did not bear any fruit.
At least three former members have so far given testimony that Soheil was killed by the MEK commanders in Camp Ashraf. Bizhan from Iran, Keyvan Radbin from Canada and Majid Rouhi from Europe acknowledged that Soheil (Sasha) was a dissident member in the MEK system and wanted to leave the group. They affirmed that he was killed by three bullets shot in his head and back.
“When I was in Ashraf Camp I made friendship with Soheyl Khattar (Sasha),”Keyvan Radbin writes.”He also had same problems as mine and he also had been tortured. He tried to escape but eventually he was killed by his person in charge (called mas’ul) when he was in the Iraqi base (feylaq). Actually the doctor who was called Hassan Aref told me that because he was witness there when Sasha`s dead body was brought to the clinic.”
Nevertheless, the MEK leaders first announced that he was shot unintentionally by himself when he was cleaning his gun. After a while, the group listed Soheil Khattar as a”martyr”killed by American bombings in Iraq.
Soheil’s parents are still demanding the trial of MEK leaders for the unjustified murder of their son. They have recently written a letter to the supreme court of Albania –where the MEK is located now— asking for the punishment of the group leaders, compensation and the return of Sasha’s body to Iran. They believe justice has to be served.