Mr. Hassan Sharqi, former member of Mujahedin Khalq Organization left the group on August 22nd after he was interviewed by UN authorities. He declared his defection from the cult giving an official statement to Sahar Family Foundation:
I am Hassan Sharqi. I was born in 1954 in the North of Iran. I could manage to release myself from the criminal cult of Rajavi after 24 years of imprisonment while I was being interviewed by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on Saturday August 22nd.
I asked to leave the organization for the first time on December 22, 2008, writing a report to Mozhgan Parsaee [the then top fficial of the MKO] but my request was declined. A twelve-hour meeting was held for me in which Mozhgan, Mehri, Saeed Naqash, Samad Kalantari and Hekmat refused my demand. The second time, On July27, I signed a white paper and wrote on the foot that I confirmed my expulsion from the group. I submitted the paper to the official of my unit, Habibeh Tavoli, in order that they wrote on the top anything they wanted but this time together with Hooshang Doudkani she held a 4-hour long meeting to refuse my request for defection.
In 1989 after years of imprisonment as a war prisoner in Iraq, I thought that I would get rid of Saddam Hussein forces’ atrocities so I asked to be transferred to Rajavi’s Camp, but there I found myself imprisoned by an inhumane cult where the individuals had no right to think freely. Talking to each other was considered as a meeting so it was forbidden.
Members were all the time humiliated, verbally abused and mentally tortured for talking to their peers or having ideas against the leaders’ interests. We were even physically abused. For example, I was severely beaten, under the order of Roqayeh Abbasi, by Iraj Taleshi, Alireza Qanbari, Massoud Assadi and Mohammad Moradi because I had talked to another person at the eastern side of Camp Ashraf, outside the camp.
Besides, the cult forces members both female and male to write their thoughts and even their sexual dreams and read them to their peers in Rajavi-made sessions called “weekly Cleansing”. This way they get humiliated in front of others. Regarding forced divorces, mandatory celibacy and separation of genders in the MKO, these sessions are just a type of sexual torture.
Members of the group are deprived from any contact with the outside world including their family. Any contact with your family and any news from the outside world are forbidden.
When I first entered the group in 1989, a person named Zahra Rajabi took all the money I had collected during my 9 years of imprisonment together with my wedding ring and my necklace that were a souvenir from my family and were so precious. She told me whenever it was needed they would give it to me but they never did.
Because of the above-mentioned reasons and other reasons that I will explain thoroughly in future, I decided to escape the cult after I was provided with the opportunity in Temporary Transit Location and the help of UNHCR.
I ask the authorities of the United Nations and families of people imprisoned in both camp Ashraf and Liberty to try their best for the release of my friends of whom the majority are willing to leave the cult. In my idea, family’s presence in Iraq is a necessity since it is a stimulant for them to leave the MKO.
Translated by Nejat Society