Following the appeal made by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ NCRI) against the German magazine Die Zeit, on an article titled “Freed at Last” about the former child soldier, Amin Golmaryami, the German court ruled that five out of eight facts that the MEK had appealed on, were true and should not be removed from the article. No verdict was issued about the three others because more investigation is needed and eventually the file was referred to an appeal court in Hamburg.
In the article authored by the journalist Luisa Hommerich published by Die Zeit on November, 15th, 2021, twenty-four facts were exposed on abuse against former child soldiers of the MEK, based on the interview with Amin Golmaryami and the journalist’s own investigations.
The judgements made by the German court at least on the five accusations against the MEK was a huge failure for the MEK (and its political vitrine the NCR) because once more it was confirmed that the group has violated the right of its own children.
Amin Golmaryami ; The MEK former member
Consequently, the related sentences of the article will not be removed. Amin Golmaryami explained about the court verdict in the recent Club House room held by former child soldiers of the MEK, on February 6th, 2022.
Five evidences approved against the MEK
The court verified that Amin Golmaryami was an involuntarily recruited child soldier of the MEK for 12 years. The judges of the court based their argument on the testimonies of other child soldiers, Amin’s then comrades, such as Amir Yaghmai and MohammadReza Torabi.
The court confirmed that the group seeks religious causes based on an intelligence report arguing that the MEK was founded on a mixture of Islamist-Marxist ideology. The MEK rejects that it is religious!
The court verified that what the MEK claims to rationalize the smuggling of the children of Mujahedin from Iraq to Europe in 1991 is not true. Actually, the group leaders did not want to save the lives of the children but they aimed to destroy the family structure. The court ruled that this is quite acceptable based on the investigations and analysis made by the journalist.
The court confirmed that the MEK authorities smuggled 40 children from the group’s team house in Cologne to Camp Ashraf, Iraq based on evidences presented in the article.
The court confirmed that Amin Golmaryami was a child soldier who was taken by the MEK agents to Iraq where he received military trainings based on existing documents and the testimonies of other former child soldiers.
The court confirmed that Amin Golmaryami did not visit his mother immediately after he was arrived in the MEK camp in Iraq; It took him two weeks to meet his mother in the presence of other female members who were monitoring them. In fact, the MEK agents had promised Amin to take him to Iraq to stay with her mother for a short time and then get back to Europe but according to Amin and other child soldiers they were not allowed to visit their parents in Camp Ashraf except once in a year.
The three other facts, stated in the article, that the MEK claims they were not true are frozen by the court until they are considered in the appeal court of Hamburg.