++ Ebrahim Mohammad Rahimi spent many years with the MEK. He eventually managed to escape the camp in Iraq by taking refuge in the American run TIPF for four years before getting back to London. During the internal revolution of the MEK, Rahimi sent his son, Sepher, live with his grandparents in Iran. Sepher has now returned to London where his father is terminally ill in hospital. Sepher’s mother is still with the MEK and Rahimi and his son have tried to make contact with her before he dies. They have now begun asking MEK lobbyists for help since the MEK leaders only reacted by calling them “agents of the Iranian regime”. MEK Internal Critics such asIraj Mesdaghi, Hamneshinbahar, Esmail Yaghmai and others, have jumped on the issue and published articles decrying the human rights abuses of the MEK. However, this is not an isolated incident. This week Atefeh Eghbal wrote pointing out that for the MEK some families are good but others are “agents”. This week many articles have exposed the hypocrisy of the internal critics for misusing the human rights issue themselves. They are afraid of being labelled by the MEK, so instead of defending the right of all families to find their loved ones, they separate the families into ‘mine and yours’. They advocate for the human rights of Rahimi and Sepher, but not for other families. This is the same thing the MEK does; if you are with us you are a ‘family’, if not you are an ‘agent’. Many articles write that in all the years that Mohammad Rahimi was in London, he loved to exaggerate to everyone about the time he suffered in prison in Iran. Yet he has never managed to offer any support for other families who tried to contact their loved ones. Now the situation has affected him, it is a reminder to everyone that even if you keep quiet for fear of MEK labelling, they will still come after you and cause you grief.
++ This week another person has left the MEK in Albania. Mehdi Baghban Khatib, who was among ten others who have left, was open about his dissent. He says others don’t talk because they are under pressure from the MEK and the ground staff of the UNHCR in Tirana are listening to the MEK more than their own bosses. In that respect, Iran Pen Association has written an open letter to the UNHCR to explain that UN help is not reaching individuals but is being paid to Rajavi, and urging them to investigate and pay support direct to individuals so they have a choice.
In English:
++ On December 18, 2015 members of the Women Association visited an Albanian official in the country’s Embassy in Berlin. They described their bitter experiences of their long-time imprisonment in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). They also recounted how they were released from the group. They warned that unless the Albanian authorities take control and supervise the group’s activities in that country, the MEK will continue to violate the basic human rights of the members.
++ Former British diplomat Peter Jenkins writing in Lobelog criticises the IAEA’s Intelligence Acquisition Practices and suggests how this could be improved. The article identifies the fake information fed to the IAEA by the MEK as part of the politicisation of the Iran file.
++ Zahra Moeini who lives in Germany and is a member of Iran Zanan Association, writes an Open letter to Mr. Bernard Cazeneuve, the French Interior Minister. Her letter points out that “despite of huge amount of money which this terrorist cult spends for its shows and its existance in France , the leader of this terrorist cult, Maryam Rajavi, does not do anything to rescue the residents of Camp liberty from the hell hole of Iraq.” Moeini goes on to urge Cazeneuve to do more to curtail the MEK’s activities in France.
December 25, 2015
