A new round of courts on charges of 104 high-ranking members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) as well as the group as a legal entity began yesterday, April 23rd, at the 11th Branch of the Tehran Province Criminal Court. The court was presided by Judge Dehghani and his counselors Morteza Turk and Amin Nasseri.
The judge began the session by explaining that the defendants’ lawyer has the opportunity to present his statements in the court, and the court hears private plaintiffs, their complaints and their lawyers.
Judge Dehghani addressed the international bodies and the countries that host the accused: “People of those countries themselves must be the pioneer to call their governments and the international organizations to extradite these individuals in order to attend the court until the trial is finalized and the verdicts are issued.”
According to the indictments the defendants are accused to a lot of crimes including murder, burning the victim alive, bombings and shooting against civilians. “How is it that 104 people are suspected of murder, police or competent institutions re informed of his or her presence but the hosting nation does not demand their competent institutions to extradite these individuals?”, judge Dehghani asked the audience.
He added, “I announce to the people of Albania and certain European countries that indictments have been issued and they have the right to choose lawyers to defend the allegations. It seems that they have not been informed by their hosting governments.”
The head of the court expressed hope that these governments would take actions in favor of their national interests by prioritizing their people’s security extradite the defendants of the court, like any other accused groups, to the Iranian government.
Subsequently, the Judge ordered Seyyed Maysam Hakimzadeh Hosseini, one of the lawyers of the plaintiffs, to stand before the court to present his statement.
“Given that today is the first meeting that I have had the opportunity to express defense, the text of the bill will be submitted to the court,” the lawyer told the court.
The lawyer continued, “The previous incidents have shown that there have been crimes that anyone who defines crimes would not use not a word other than that, in terms of the public conscience of the media, their task is to reflect the crimes.
As we can see today, the public conscience has been awakened about Gaza crimes, and everyone takes stand against them.”
“What happened in Iran by the MEK for the past 40 years is not less important than what we see in Gaza today,” Hakimzadeh Hosseini said, “We are dealing with people who have committed the highest level of crime and betrayal against their own country and their national interests.”
The lawyer introduced two people to the court, a researcher and a former member of the MEK in order to present their statements. Safaedin Tabraeian, the researcher is the author of a book on the MEK history. Ali Ekrami, former member of the MEK and a member of Nejat Society attended the court as an informed person.
