++ Propaganda photographs depicting MEK demonstrations against Rouhani in Paris were carefully choreographed. The non-Iranian rent-a-crowd were surrounded by MEK activists and Iranian-type people to disguise the true make-up of the attendees. Local police told Iran Interlink their estimation of numbers was between 1-2,000. The MEK claimed tens of thousands. MEK pictures with the Syrian Free Army and Saudi backed Arab groups showed deliberately provocative placards swearing at Shiites as ‘Safavis’ in Arabic. Other placards claimed the Persian Gulf as the Arab Gulf, and that Ahvaz is a separate country. This last promoted a flurry of reaction from Farsi commentators who are very sensitive to this issue. They asked ‘how low can the MEK get that they line up alongside the most wicked incitement against Iranians’.
++ Former MEK member Mirbagher Sedaghi who lives in Switzerland has a note warning ex members and families. He says “everyone knows I’m trying to rescue my brother and that he has now been moved to Albania. But the MEK called my mother in Iran saying ‘we are your brother’s friends and he is in Camp Liberty and is ill so please send money’.” Sedaghi says “the MEK obviously haven’t been able to force my brother to call himself so they had to do this themselves. But clearly he’s also not free to talk to me himself.”
++ After the transfer process stalled in January there have are now been two groups of 22 and 20 Camp Liberty residents taken to Albania in the past two weeks. The real identities of these 42 confirms that Rajavi desperate wants to send wanted people with false names to Albania. Specifially Fahimeh Arvani, Roghiyeh Abbasi, Simah Vatankhah, Jaleh Mahramnia have all been sent to Albania with false identities. They are all wanted for various crimes. Critics and former MEK members have written to the Albanian authorities to ask for investigation into this matter.
In English:
++ Tehran Times Art Desk reported ‘Mina’s Choice’ director Kamal Tabrizi says his main motive in making the film is to give warnings to families about the danger of Daesh (also known as ISIS, ISIL and IS). Tabrizi explained. “We experienced a type of Daesh in 1980s (referring to the terrorist group of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization) and I wanted to remind the new generation that our security lies behind having gone through those days, while today it is the country of France that is experiencing this process”.
++ Nejat Society published the names of the latest group of arrivals in Albania. However, several have been visually identified as “among the ‘most wanted’ by Interpol, [who] were to be moved under fake identities”.
++ Anne Khodabandeh wrote a personal response to the story of a father in America who managed to prevent his daughter and two other young women from travelling to Syria. The event reminded her of how the MEK tricked the parents of Neda Hassani into sending her to Camp Ashraf so she wouldn’t be affected by “bourgeoise Western corruption”. Sadly, Neda died as a result of self-immolation in Paris in 2003 following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi on terrorism charges. “But Neda’s death wasn’t even for the cause her parents believed in. They sent her to Iraq to struggle for the freedom of the Iranian people, not the freedom of a vain and cruel woman.”
