Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Masoumeh was strangled by her scarf

Masoumeh Gheibi entered the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) as a non-Muslim when she was thirty years old. Although she had stated it to the commanders, she was always under pressure by the commanders to obey the religious law of Islam. She was mentally and verbally abused by her commanders and finally she was sexually abused by the division commander named MohammadReza.

Consequently, Masoumeh urged to leave the group but her demand was refused. She was not allowed to leave the Cult of Rajavi because the leaders knew that as soon as she left the organization, she would reveal the story of what had been done to her. Therefore, a female commander arranged to hold meeting for Masoumeh to resolve her problem with the organization and convince her to stay in the group.

But when they find out that Masoumeh is in no way willing to give up and will not trust the MEK anymore, the meetings got tense and oppressive where they punched and kicked Masoumeh in the face by her peers so severely that she passed out. According to some defectors’ testimony Masoumeh was strangled by her scarf around her neck.

Meanwhile, just at the same time that Massoumeh was under abuse and torture that led to her death, Massoud Rajavi was establishing his empire based on a female hegemony!

She was eventually buried in the Pearl Cemetery in Camp Ashraf. It was declare in the group and written on her grave that she died of an illness. All her comrades in Camp Ashraf were aware that she was healthy until the day before her death. However, like many other crimes of MEK leaders, all members remained silent for fear of death.
She was 35 when she was murdered in 1993. Her children had been separated from her and sent to Europe shortly after she had entered the cult., Masoumeh Gheibi was killed in the MEK while still hoping to see her children again after her defection.

May 9, 2021 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

For Milad

To the international Human Rights Bodies

My name is Narges Beheshti. My brother Mostafa Beheshti is a member of the Mojahedin-E Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, NLA . . .) who is trapped in a remote isolated camp of the group in Albania.

MEK is a terrorist cult supported by the Albanian government. The cult brainwashes the members and forces them into terrorism and crimes.

My other brother Morteza Beheshti was also a member of the MEK living in the cult’s camp Ashraf in Iraq who was killed through a conflict. Both brothers left Iran for more income and a better life, but were deceived into joining the group. Morteza was married and had a son.

My mother passed away recently. After Morteza was killed, her only wish was to talk to Mostafa. Unfortunately, this never happened until she died. The leaders of the MEK, just like other destructive cults, prevent the members to have access to the outside world, in particular to their friends and family.

What should I do if I want to contact my brother in Albania and learn about his situation? The Albanian government, in order to appease the MEK, does not let the families to travel to Albania. Even if the families be able to enter the country, they have no chance to see their loved ones and they would be harassed by the Police and authorities.

I firmly urge you to show me a way to persuade the MEK leaders as well as the Albanian authorities to let the members contact their relatives. I am eagerly waiting for your response and thank you in advance for your efforts.

Narges Beheshti, Tehran, Iran

***

The Beheshtis speak to their beloved Milad taken as a hostage in the MEK camp in Albania:

https://dla.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Beheshti_202003.mp4

March 7, 2020 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Response to Nejat Society’s appeal

Mr. Gjergji Thanasi, Albanian author and human rights activist, responded to the appeal by the Iranian Nejat Society’s CEO:

Mr. Gjergji Thanasi, Albanian author and human rights activist

He wrote:
As an Albanian who has extensive information about the MEK and their paramilitary facility near Manez town (Ashraf 3 Camp), I pity the rank and file MEK members who are little more than serfs to their lady owner, the old stateless harpy Maryam Rajavi!
As an Albanian I consider Rajavi’s activity in Albania to be a threat to the national security of my homeland and a blatant violation of human rights of the poor cult members!
Tell the families to wait and hope. Their loved ones momentarily are simply doomed. It is easier to break out from a low security jail than to leave Camp Ashraf 3. The quisling segments in the Albanian government and opposition behave shamefully like lap dogs to that evil woman Rajavi.
Momentarily there is very little you can do. It is virtually impossible to receive an Albanian visa as a holder of an Iranian passport. Only those Iranians who are holders of EU, British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zeeland passports can enter Albania. Even they will suffer a low level harassment from our police.
Nothing special that cannot be handled by your Albanian lawyer. They will face a vigorous slander campaign on the part of MEK. The usual stuff: spies of the Mullahs’ regime, terrorists of the Quds force, even in case of senior citizens 70 years old or more.

March 3, 2020 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MEK formers at EU Parliament

On Thursday, November 21, a delegation of MEK defectors including Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad, Isa Azadeh, Mohammad Karami, Reza Sadeghi Jebeli and Ali Akbar Rastgou attended the conference “Shrinking spaces: Policing humanitarianism and human rights defenders” held by the Greens in the European Parliament, Brussels.

A delegation of former members of the Mujahedin Khalq attended a conference in the European Parliament.

The conference addressed how the criminalisation affects the rights of citizens and discuss ways to protect NGOs and human rights defenders.
The defectors clarified that the MEK members do not enjoy the right of education, marriage, having family, contacting the outside world; they have no access to modern communication tools.

November 30, 2019 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Defectors in EU Parliament: Violation of Human Rights in the MEK

A delegation of former members of the Mujahedin Khalq attended a conference in the European Parliament.

On Thursday, November 21, a delegation of MEK defectors including Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad, Isa Azadeh, Mohammad Karami, Reza Sadeghi Jebeli and Ali Akbar Rastgou attended the conference “Shrinking spaces: Policing humanitarianism and human rights defenders” held by the Greens in the European Parliament, Brussels.

Reza Jebeli - Eu Parliament

The conference addressed how the criminalisation affects the rights of citizens and discuss ways to protect NGOs and human rights defenders. The speakers of the panels included a number of Greens MEPs and guest speakers such as experts and authorities of the Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
Socializing with other participants, MEK defectors tried to describe the conditions of refugees who are behind the bars of the cult-like MEK establishment in Albania. They stated that the Cult of Rajavi (MEK/MKO) has deprived its members of their basic rights.

The defectors clarified that the MEK members do not enjoy the right of education, marriage, having family, contacting the outside world; they have no access to modern communication tools.

The audience were impressed by the human right violations that take place in the MEK. Responding to their questions, defectors informed them of the most recent conditions of dissident members who are inside the MEK camps and defectors who have left the group.

November 26, 2019 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

We celebrated your birthday

Ali Gholizade was a prisoner of war when the MKO cult tricked him into joining the cult. He is now 54. His family celebrated his birthday:

Hello my dear Ali, we are all good . My dear brother the cruel hands of Rajavis cult have parted us away from each other now for many years.
When would these bitter days come to an end and we hug each other?!
Do you know how old you are?!

This years , the same as every year we gathered together and celebrated your birthday . all our brothers and sisters participated the celebration except you, yourself. I hope you the best. We hope you be able to free yourself from the mental and physical barriers of the Rajavis Cult.
Dear Ali, we all missed you a lot. Come back soon .

March 5, 2019 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Nejat Society declare the Establishment of “Mothers, Forgotten Victims”

Nejat Society declares the establishment of “Mothers, Forgotten Victims” on February 26, 2019.
Commemorating the Iranian Women’s Day, Nejat Society central office declares the establishment of an association to support mothers of the victims of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI). The mothers whose children have been imprisoned behind the bars of the cult-like MKO group, are deprived from their basic right which is a free visit with their loved ones.
Nejat Society aims to be the voice of the mothers whose rights are ignored by the international community.
Further information on the activities of “Mothers, Forgotten Victims” association will be published eventually.
Nejat Society

March 2, 2019 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Amnesty’s controversial visits to the camp of the People’s Mujahedin in Albania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Amnesty_International#Amnesty’s_controversial_visits_to_the_camp_of_the_People’s_Mujahedin_in_Albania
In December 2018, Amnesty published a report entitled, ‘Blood-soaked Secrets,’ that accused Iran of carrying out the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988.
Much of the evidence used in the report was based on the testimonies of members of the People’s Mujahedin who are now resident at a camp complex located in Albania, just outside of the capital, Tirana.
According to the report, Amnesty’s researchers,”undertook three field trips to Tirana, Albania, where a substantial number of survivors and family members are based.”
However, many reports indicate that human rights abuses take place at this camp and that members are allegedly subjected to indoctrination and torture.
An NGO, the Nejat society, which represents the families of members of the People’s Mujahedin who have been denied access to meet them, has complained that Amnesty should never have been complicit in human rights abuses that occur at the camp by approaching members that have likely offered testimonies under duress.
Iran Interlink, a charity run by two former members of the People’s Mujahedin, has also lent weight to the criticism by the Nejat Society of Amnesty for visiting the camp in order to elicit information.

January 12, 2019 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MEK (Rajavi cult) victims’ families reject Amnesty International report endorsing gross human rights abuse in Albania

To: Secretary General of Amnesty International Mr. Kumi Naidoo
Amnesty International UK
Human Rights Action Centre
17-25 New Inn Yard
London
EC2A 3EA
020 7033 1777
sct@amnesty.org.uk
We write as the families of Mojahedin Khalq members. We do not wish to comment on the events of 1988 that your report covers except to question whether it is customary for a campaigning human rights group to investigate historic events in a 140-page report. What does AI hope to achieve by creating this report?

We find the report seriously flawed and it lacks credibility for the following reasons:
An internet search will show that all western organisations, such as the US State Department and United Nations, and the media refer to the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation as MEK or MKO. This report refers throughout to the PMOI, which is only ever used by the MEK itself. After reading this report we need to ask who has really written it and what relationship the author has with the MEK/MKO and Maryam Rajavi?
On page 7 of the report it says:
“Amnesty International’s research, conducted from September 2017 to November 2018, analysed the testimonies of 41 survivors, 53 family members of victims, 11 former prisoners, and 10 other witnesses from 28 cities across Iran, obtained either directly or through Justice for Iran, an Iranian human rights organization.”
Shadi Sadr of Justice4Iran is the nominal head of several organisations supported by anti-Iran neoconservatives. She frequently travels to Albania and Paris to liaison with MEK and Maryam Rajavi. She has written pro-MEK articles and takes a pro-MEK stance. She has no credibility whatsoever in the wider Iranian community.
The report claims to have taken testimony from MEK members in Albania. The people in Albania do not have identity documents, work permits or travel documents. They are not registered as refugees in Albania. Even when they were registered by the UNHCR in Iraq many used fake or borrowed passports. So, it would not be possible for AI to accurately and unequivocally identify the individuals they spoke to.
Also, it is true that all MEK members have already learned scripted information about the events of 1988. MEK have indoctrinated the members with their version of reality over the years. They are not reliable witnesses.
There are tens of Iranian families living in Europe and North America who lost their loved ones in the events of 1988. The report is an insult to the other families of the executed people inside and outside Iran who do not support the MEK, who have not sided with Saddam Hussein nor with Saudi/Israeli anti-Iran forces. Why has AI failed to interview even a single one of these people? They are families of MEK victims, but they are not traitors.
On page 1, Amnesty International claims to be “independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations”.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein when it was possible to investigate the conditions of MEK members in Iraq, AI failed to say a single word except to promote MEK as a ‘human rights’ group. In 2005, Human Rights Watch wrote a damning report on the human rights abuses conducted by MEK against their own members. In 2009 the RAND Corporation conducted an in-depth study of MEK and revealed its cultic human rights abuses. This year alone, following some hard-hitting reports by Albanian media about MEK’s dangerous and abusive behaviour in Albania, various western media outlets investigated and wrote about MEK. All identified serious human rights abuses against the members.

As families of the MEK members we are angry and appalled that Shadi Sadr can go to Camp Ashraf 3 in Manez, but none of us families are allowed to visit our loved ones there. We have campaigned for two decades for the right to have contact with our loved ones inside the MEK. Even prisoners in high security jails in Iran have this right.

Raha Bahreini of AI and Shadi Sadr of Justice4Iran have made the MEK out to be a peaceful democratic opposition. This is a lie.
MEK members are isolated and held in a state of modern slavery under forced indoctrination. Apparently Amnesty International does not know the meaning of that. Otherwise, why doesn’t AI speak out about the current abuses of the MEK? Why doesn’t AI mention anywhere that MEK kills its own members – Massoud Dalili in Iraq and Malek Sharai in Albania this year for example?
Your report frequently refers to the right of victims and their families to have human rights abuses investigated and reparations made. While the report identifies members of the Mojahedin Khalq as victims in 1988, you have ignored the victims of human rights abuses inside the MEK for over thirty years. The report even fails to mention what happened during Operation Eternal Light in 1988 when Maryam Rajavi and her husband Massoud sent 2000-3000 members – mostly non-combatants – to their deaths in a hopeless military campaign to invade Iran. This was clearly a war crime.
This complete – and we can only assume, deliberate – failure to describe the MEK’s crimes and abuses in the report make it meaningless. Its only use could be for the MEK to whitewash its image and deflect attention from the control and abuse of their members in Albania.
If Amnesty International truly believes in campaigning for every person’s human rights, we families make the following demands:

That AI pressure the Albanian state to ensure that all who want to leave the MEK camp are allowed to do so.
To ensure that the Albanian state issues visas and intervenes inside Albania to allow families to meet their loved ones.
To grant the members and ex-members of MEK identity documents and work permits which will allow them to live independently.

December 19, 2018 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Traumatic stories of torture in the MKO during the 1990s

When in May 2005 the Human Rights Watch reported on the huge violations of human rights inside the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ The Cult of Rajavi), the subtitle “Security Clearance” discussed the conditions in which human rights abuses took place in the group’s camps. “During late 1994 and early 1995, many members of the MKO were arrested by the organization’s operatives inside their camps in Iraq,” the report reads. “They were interrogated and accused of spying for the Iranian government. They were released in mid-1995 after being forced to sign false confessions and stating their loyalty to the leaders.”

The authors of the HRW’s report “NO EXIT”, interviewed five former members of the group Farhad Javaheri-Yar, Ali Ghashghavi, Alireza Mirasgari, Akbar Akbari, and Abbas Sadeghinejad. “According to their testimonies—detailed in the next section—the purpose of these arrests was to intimidate dissidents and obtain false confessions from them stating that they were agents of Iranian government. This period was known as the “security clearance”.”

Human rights abuses carried out by MKO leaders against dissident members ranged from prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement to beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution, and torture that in two cases led to death.

Based on NO EXIT report, the severe cases of torture ended with the death of at least two people Parviz Ahmadi and Ghorban Ali Torabi. However, after the report was published in 2005, a lot of testimonies and memoirs of defectors were published confirming the HRW’s report and in many cases, numerous facts on the human rights abuses in the MKO were added to those that were stated in the report.

Since the relocation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization in Albania and the increased defection from the group, more revelations were made on the “Security Clearance” in 1994 and 1995. Gholam Reza Shokri who left the group in 2017 recounted his traumatic experience of torture in the MKO’s jail in an interview with Spiegel.

Gholarmreza Shokri

Shokri spent 27 years of his life in the cult-like MKO. He was only 20 years old and willing to find a good job in Europe when he was recruited by the MKO in Iraq. The MKO agents promised to help him get the European visa only if he stayed in their camp for a few months.

As soon as he entered the organization, they confiscated his ID documents and never gave him back.” whenever I asked for my ID, they would say that they had no idea where it was.”

Thus, Shokri had no way out of the MKO camp but he frequently used to ask the leaders when he could leave the cult. This question was considered a sin by the leaders. Departure from the MKO was forbidden and showing your willingness for leaving the group would be faced with suppression, imprisonment and torture. So he was imprisoned in solitary confinement.

Shokri said that they had closed their eyes and took him to a clandestine jail. “They insulted me calling me spy of the Mullah’s regime,” he recounts. “They beat me in my legs so badly that I could not walk; they were bleeding. They tied my hands with hand coughs for a week. After a week my hands had no sense; I put the fire of a cigarette on them but I didn’t feel it burn. Then they forced me to stand up for one more week. Each time that I fell down out of fatigue, they would beat me so hard that I had to stand up again.”

Shokri recalled that after a week his legs were bruised and turned black. Blood did not circulate to his head so he fainted. He showed the scars on his legs to the interviewer.

He was under torture for 45 days. Finally Massoud Rajavi called on the tortured members and threatened them that if they expose what has happened to them and if they intend to leave the group they would be handed over to Iraqi authorities under the regime of Saddam Hussein. This meant that more torture or death would be waiting for them.

Thus, Shokri stayed in the MKO for another 23 years until September 21^st , 2016 that the group leaders finally let him leave.

Mazda Parsi

December 3, 2018 0 comments

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