prison

I come from the land of pain and suffering – Part four

I was physically and psychologically tortured by Ebrahim Zakeri and others for at least seven to eight hours. I was subjected to the most terrifying and violent torture. A number of them began hitting me on the shin with their arm boots. They would tie my hands behind my back, pick me up and slap me around. Sometimes they would put their mouth next to my ears and would scream loudly. It was tortured and nerve-racking.
They feared that I had somehow been able to telephone my family and BBC radio. Therefore, they were trying to break me down and force me to sign the letter, so in case the news of my imprisonment were to be broadcast, they would be able to manufacture a document explaining their actions.

Prior to my treatment at the hands of these people, I had spent the night before wondering in the streets of Baghdad and had not slept for 48 hours. This fact intensified the awful effects of the torture.
I was subsequently blindfolded and handcuffed again and transferred to another solitary confinement cell where I remained until Dec 1999-Jan 2000 [Dey 1379]. They sold me (blindfolded and handcuffed again) to Iraqi intelligence and Security Organization (Mukhaberat) on 16 January of the same year [26 Dey ]] (later I discovered that three other long-time members of the organization had separately received the same kind of treatment as I. I, however, would not reveal their identities for safety reasons, but, I am prepared to give their names to Amnesty International, UN High Commissions on Human Rights and legal agencies).

Mohammd Hussein Sobhani

Other members of the organization and I spent 35 days in Iraqi torture chambers and at Intelligence and security Organization’s (Mukhaberat) central jail. As long as I was at Rajavi’s jail, I was kept in solitary confinement which placed great deal of emotional and psychological pressure on me.
However, the overcrowded jails at Iraqi Intelligence and Security Organization were unbearable. They put 12 prisoners in a cell three meters by three meters. The prisoners had to sleep on top of each other. Toilet and sink filled one third of the room. The walls of the cell were the colors of blood. The half-dark cell was lit only by a dim moonlight. This was in stark contrast to Rajavi’s solitary confinement jail, where for four years I had to sleep with the light on every night. And anytime I was awaken by onslaught of mosquitoes, suffocating heat or unbearable psychological pressure, I was not able to go back to sleep. The bright lamps would worsen the throbbing headache that I had to frequently endure.

After two or three weeks,Abu-Seyf came to visit me at Ashraf Base. I protested my imprisonment and demanded to be turned over to UN so I could join my daughter in Denmark. In the past, he, on many occasions because of my post in the HE, had seen me with Mr. Rajavi and Mrs Rajavi Qajar Azdanlou. Abu-Seyf tried to console me. He tried to portray Iraq as an innocent party to all that had aspired by differentiating between MKO and Iraqi policies. He placed the blame for my years in Rajavi’s solitary confinement on MKO. he expressed his sorrow at my years of imprisonment and torture and my inability to see my daughter promising to transfer me to a new location where UN officials in Baghdad would visit me. He said that I would be able to ask the UN officials to transfer me to Denmark where I could join my daughter.
I, along with another three long-time members of the organization were transferred to Abu-Ghuraib prison on 20 February 2001, date as received.[Esfand 137]. To my amazement I found out that 30 or 40 former members of the organization who had been sold to Iraqi government were housed at that prison. This number, however reached 80 by the winter of 2002 [1380].

To be continued

May 8, 2022 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

The MEK Ex-member: We were remote controlled, like robots

Ali Qashqaei spent five years (1995-1998) in the organization’s camps in Iraq:
“I was in a difficult financial situation. I thought the organization could help me to get out of it. I was also attracted by the leaders’ message. They claimed they were working to give freedom back to the people and to create democracy and social justice. I left Iran for Istanbul (Turkey) and from there, entered Iraq where movement officials welcomed me. I received military training to use a number of weapons, but I was never involved in operations against the Iranian army. I only took part in reconnaissance missions inside Iran”.

“From the time I arrived in Iraq, the atmosphere of suspicion in the camps shocked me. Our leaders asked us for total devotion, heart and soul, to the organization. They remote controlled us, like robots. They told us, “if you have sexual fantasies, even a dream, you must report it in writing in order to exorcise it”. In a speech repeatedly broadcast in video, Maryam Rajavi told the Mojahedin: “80% of your energy should be used in the fight against your sexual instincts”. Many of the organization’s officers, who protested against this sudden authoritarian and sectarian change of course, paid a heavy price for their insubordination. They were humiliated, tortured and imprisoned.one, named Hassan Rashedi who now lives in Iran, went insane, because of this. I knew him in prison, along with Beijan, from Kermanshah. Houshang, from Eilam, Ali Reza, from Tehran and Mahdi Eftekhari, who before his demotion, had been in charge of organizing Rajavi’s travel”.

Ali Qashqaei spent four years in prison, two months in the movement’s jail in the Ashraf Camp and the rest in the foreigner’s wing of an Iraqi penitentiary. He particularly wanted to share this eyewitness account: “in prison, I knew Parviz Ahmadi, a young man from Kermanshah. He had held senior positions in the organization. Because he refused to support Rajavi’s new ideological line, he was brutally tortured and then killed. Twenty of us were witnesses to his execution. He was only 36”.

From the book: The People’s Mojahedin of Iran: A Struggle for what? “By Victor Charbonnier

May 2, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

I come from the land of pain and suffering – Part two

I was subjected to the most horrendous physical and psychological torture during my stay in solitary confinement. I was verbally abused; physically assaulted; psychologically tortured, starved, deprived of warm water in winter, denied air condition during the 50 degree centigrade summer days in Baghdad. My cell was infested with cockroaches and mosquitoes. I was subjected to general and localized torture for at least 13 times.

Sometimes in the middle of 1374{year beginning on 21 March 1995}, following my loud protests (complaining about the abhorrent prison condition and the fact that I was being prevented from seeing my wife and daughter), they moved me again from my cell in the middle of the night while the streets at Ashraf Base were deserted. They had feared that other inmates might recognize my voice. They tied my hands and blindfolded me. I was transferred to another secret jail on the same base. However, after nine months, I was transferred back to the original cell. They didn’t allow me to speak to my wife for four and half years. They finally letme to speak to my wife sometimes in Ordibehesht – Khordad 1375 [April-May 1996].

Mohammd Hussein Sobhani

This was meant to break me and bring me down to my knees. Rajavi allowed me to speak to my wife for only 10 minutes. In a letter, Mr. Rajavi, had asked me to forget the past and assured me that the regime [Islamic Republic of Iran] was about to be toppled!! I was kept in solitary confinement until Esfand 1376 [March 1996] when I received another letter from Mr. Rajavi. During this period, I was not allowed to call my daughter or even write to her. They did not even give me the letters or photographs she had sent me.

I received another letter from Mr. Rajavi in Esfand 1376 [March 1996]. Subsequently, I was taken to a meeting attended by Mahvash Sepehri,Mehdi Abrishamchi, Fahimeh Arvani,Mahbubeh Jamshidi,seyed Mohamamd Seyyed-al-Mohaddesin, Mohammad ali Tohidi and Mohammad Ali Jaberzadeh. I asked them to let me see my daughter. They agreed on the condition that I should stay anther three years at a so-called suitable place but in solitary confinement (prisoners called it Rajavi’s Hostel) they said that I would be allowed to visit my daughter in Denmark afterwards. I accepted but insisted that I must be allowed to either call my daughter or stay in touch with her through letters. However, right before transferring me from my solitary confinement at Ashraf to another jail in Badie, which by all accounts was a better facility, they asked me to sign a letter stating that I was willing going to spend three years at the so-called Rajavi’s military hostel. I refused at first which prompted them to delay my transfer for two weeks. However, at the end I signed the letter in hope of being able to speak to my daughter and exchange letters with her.

April 28, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

I come from the land of pain and suffering – Part one

My name is Mohammad Hosein Sobhani. I am a former official and member of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization central committee. My name and title appeared in the special Autumn issue of 1370{ year beginning on 21 March 1977} and became professionally involved with that organization on 22 Bahman 1357{11 February 1978}. At the beginning, I was working in MKO’s administrative and student departments until with my wife, Afsaneh Taherian, were dispatched to Iranian Kordestan. Prior to my transfer, I was in command of a resistance unit. After the opposition forces pulled back from the liberated territories in Iranian Kordestan, I continued my work at MKO bases in Iraq. I worked in the communication department of Radio Mojahed until 1364{year beginning on 21 March 1985} when I assumed my role as a unit commander at the training school for urban guerrilla warfare. And later I was out in charge of a department at the intelligence headquarters. I, subsequently, became the security commander at Ashraf Base and later became one of the commanders in charge of AM {security} and HE{protection}.

Mohammd Hussein Sobhani

Starting in 1371 {year beginning on 21 March 1992}, I began expressing my views about MKO’s strategy regarding its armed struggle and the organization’s presence in Iraq.
Subsequently I had two meetings with Massoud Rajavi,each lasting six to seven hours, during which he tried to change my views. I also met Maryam Azdanlu and Fahimeh Arvani a number of times during which I pushed my views forward, stood my grounds and expressed reservations about various issues. Finally at the start of Shahrivar 1371{August 1992}, Mr. Rajavi ordered a meeting attended by Ebrahim Zakeri and Seyyed Mohamamd al-Mohaddesin and a number of high ranking officials.
I saw behind Rajavi’s false façade for the first time. During this meeting those people who until yesterday were calling me brother were now using their hands, fists and gutter language as well as profanity trying to dissuade me from questioning the strategy of the organization. I , however, stood my ground and did not bend. After that, Ebrahim Zakeri who had presided over the meeting ended the session. Following that meeting, report of which was forwarded to Rajavi, I was put in Bengal { a small container} at Badie Base for 24 hours. The next day, before the start of the daily routine at the base, I was secretly moved by two Land cruisers and a group headed by Ebrahim Zakeri and Soheyla Sadeg ( at the time in charge of the organization’s jail and personnel headquarters). I was transferred to a new jail and put in solitary confinement located on street No 400 at Ashraf Base (at the center of Khales, 50 km north of Baghdad).

To be continued

April 21, 2022 0 comment

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Sobhani spent eight-and-a-half years in solitary confinement inside MEK camp

Mohammad Hussein Sobhani spent eight-and-a-half years in solitary confinement inside the MKO’s main camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, from September 1992 to January 2001. He was subsequently held in Abu Ghraib prison and left Iraq in 2002.

Sobhani first came in contact with the MKO in 1977, a year before the anti-monarchy revolution. By 1979, he was working “professionally and full time” with the organization. When the headquarters of the armed wing of the organization relocated inside Iraq, he followed suit. By 1991, he had risen in the ranks of the organization and had become a member of the Central Committee. However, ever since the “ideological revolution,” when divorces were mandated, he became uncomfortable with the path pursued by the leadership. His differences with the leadership of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and other members of the Central Committee reached a climax in 1992. Masoud Rajavi argued for remaining in Iraq regardless of the end of the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991, he said. Rajavi still hoped that fighting between Iran and Iraq would resume, and based the organization’s strategy on such a development. Sobhani says he found the possibility of a new war highly unlikely given the dismal state of Iraq’s armed forces. Other members of the Central Committee saw his arguments as a challenge to the Rajavis’ leadership:

Mohammd Hussein Sobhani

As long as my criticisms were mild, I was left alone. But as soon as I persevered in my questioning, their behavior changed dramatically. In the beginning, I discussed my concerns personally with the leadership, Maryam and Masoud Rajavi. I also brought up my concerns with other members of the Central Committee. These discussions reached a dead-end. Once they became certain that I didn’t share their views, on August 28, 1992, they convened a meeting (neshast taiin taklif) to determine my faith and to decide if I was staying with the organization or not. The process began with intimidation, verbal abuse, and beatings. Of course, since I was a high ranking official, I was treated better than ordinary members. I was told that my criticisms and questions were just an excuse to quit the struggle. Their conclusion was that I was a quitter (borideh) and didn’t have the strength to continue the struggle any longer.

On August 31, 1992, Sobhani was moved to a prison and kept under solitary confinement for the next eight-and-a-half years.

After the first two months in prison, all of my beliefs in the organization fell apart. Up to that point I considered my differences with them as a matter of divergent political views; I wasn’t questioning the MKO’s underlying essence. I used to mark my prison walls each time I was subjected to severe beatings. There were many occasions of lesser beatings, but on eleven occasions I was beaten mercilessly using wooden sticks and thick leather elts.
Sobhani was handed over to Iraqi officials in January 2001. He spent one month in mukhabarat prison and then transferred to Abu Ghraib. He was held in Abu Ghraib until January 21, 2002, when he was repatriated to Iran in exchange for Iraqi POWs. In Iran, he was detained and interrogated by the Iranian government. After three days, he escaped from a low security detention center and fled Iran. He is currently living in Europe.

September 8, 2021 0 comment

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MEK ex-member: I was imprisoned for forty-five days

Ali Ghashghavi joined the MKO as a fighter in Iraq in 1989. He was arrested in February 1995 during the “security clearance” phase and was imprisoned for four months in Camp Ashraf. He told Human Rights Watch of his experience during this period.

One night in January 1995, I was called over by my superior and told that a member of the Central Committee wanted me in her office. I was excited to be meeting such a high level official at such an unlikely hour. I assumed there was much importance attached to this meeting. We got into a military vehicle; it was around midnight. They took me to a place inside Camp Ashraf called Iskan. It is at the far corner of the camp where a series of apartment buildings were used to house families [before they were forcibly broken up]. It was a rather isolated spot – barren desert and frighteningly secluded.

Ali Ghashghavi

There were a few people inside, five or six. I was taken to an empty room and told to wait. A few minutes later, another member, Hussein Nizam, was brought in. Hussein Nazim had spent many years inside the Islamic Republic’s prisons, so he knew something else was happening. I was somewhat naive and didn’t have much of a clue.

Suddenly the door opened and a group of people attacked us mercilessly, blindfolded us, tied our hands behind our backs, and put us inside a car. We were driven around for half an hour. We stopped inside an area that was approximately at the center of the camp. I didn’t know this was a prison until I was taken there. The prison was on Avenue 400 of Camp Ashraf near the water tanker. Until then, I had assumed that explosives or sensitive documents were guarded inside.

Our clothes were taken from us and we put on prison garb. We were led to a large cell holding nearly twenty-five prisoners. The prison cell was on the ground floor of the building; there was a small window near the ceiling for air circulation. A small toilet and shower were built at one end of the cell.

There was a period when prisoners were taken on a daily basis for interrogations and beatings. One method was to kick the prisoner’s legs and knees repeatedly with military boots with metal covers on the front. Another method was to put a thick rope around the prisoner’s neck and drag him on the ground. Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks – their head and neck as big as a pillow.

I experienced the pain of leg-beatings firsthand. During one of my interrogation sessions, the interrogator told me that if I don’t give them guarantees that I will stay with the leaders forever, he would kill me right there and then. I asked him “what worthier guarantee there could be than my coming here to join your ranks and fight against Khomeini?” He replied that now that the ideological revolution had been instituted and life was harder, people like me couldn’t bear it and wanted to leave. He said, “I can see it in your eyes that you are dying to quit the organization.”

He went to the next room while he told me how he was going to beat me up badly. He changed his shoes and put on a pair of these military boots. He came back, and two hefty guards held me. He began kicking my legs repeatedly. My legs are still unbalanced from these beatings. Interrogations sometimes lasted for up to thirty or thirty-six hours non-stop.

Ghashghavi was released in May 1995, after a meeting with Masoud Rajavi who told him, “The judicial branch of the National Liberation Army has acquitted you.” After this experience Ghashghavi, explored ways to escape Camp Ashraf. On March 20, 1998, he was imprisoned for forty-five days and then turned over to Iraqi intelligence agents. He spent another forty-five days inside the mukhabarat prison in central Baghdad before being transferred to Abu Ghraib. He was repatriated to Iran on January 21, 2002. In Iran, he was interrogated and brought before a court that sentenced him to nine years in prison. After sixteen months of imprisonment, he was given a forty-eight hour release to visit his family. He used this opportunity to escape and leave Iran. In August 2003, he fled Iran and is currently living in Europe.

Human Rights Watch

September 5, 2021 0 comment

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