Former members of the MEK

MKO former members

ASILA holding book fairs across Albania

The Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) hold their book fair around Albanian territory. Last week, both Iranian and Albanian members of ASILA set up book stands presenting the books published by the association’s publication in Pogradec and Korçë.

https://dla.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Albania/ASILA-Bookfair-202208-1.mp4

to download the video file click here.

The books included the autobiography of Rahman Mohammadian, former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). In his book, he explains how he was taken as a POW by Iraqi forces and then he was deceived into the MEK and was taken as hostage in the MEK’s camps for over 30 years.

The main objective of ASILA is to aid the rank and file of the MEK who can manage to escape the cult-like atmosphere of the group, get deradicalized and build a normal life outside the group. Moreover, the book stands run by ASILA is aimed to create cultural exchanges and closeness between the Iranian and Albanian nations and to illuminate Albanian public about the threat of MEK cult in their country.

ASILA’s previous book fair in Duress region, north of Tirna was attacked by agents of the MEK.

August 27, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Batul Soltani explains how Maryam Rajavi and MEK used Albanian police to deny her entry to Albania

Batul Soltani a German citizen was denied entry into Albania on July 29, 2022 and deported back to Germany. She was denied entry upon the orders of Maryam Rajavi and the mojaheden command. Batool explains in English and in German how the mojaheden entered the Mother Theresa International Airport and were giving orders to the Albanian police against her and her colleague Afshin Kalantari. During the past months the mojaheden have managed to use Albanian police to deny entry to a number of European citizens in Albania.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Soltani-Olsi-202208.mp4

To download the video file click here

British, Austrian, German and Swedish nationals have been harassed and some deported from the country – on orders of Maryam Rajavi. The mojahedeen fear the presence of Iranians in Albania. Many Iranian origin European citizens have came to Albania to meet their relatives who are held as slave soldiers by the mojahedeen. Their visits threaten the existence of MEK as organization, since some 500 mujahedeen have already left the cult and now leave in freedom in Europe. To stop the destruction of her cult, Maryam Rajavi is bribing the Albanian police and government and using them to harass the Iranians living in Albania and those who come from Europe to meet their relatives and friends.

Maryam Rajavi is paying huge sums of money to create fake news about “Iranian agents” and “spies” in Albania. She is using this fake news to attack Western media like The Guardian, Foreign Policy, The Independent, Der Spiegel, MSNBC, the BBC and the New York Times who have reported on the weird nature of the cult.

Facebook page of Olsi Jazexhi

August 3, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Female defector of the MEK under attack by female members

Batoul Soltani, female defector of the Mujahedin Khalq was attacked by four female members of the group when she arrived at Tirana airport, Albania. Soltani together with three other defectors of the MEK had been invited to Tirana by ASILA (the Association for the support of Iranians Living in Albania). ASILA was established by former members of the MEK to support those who leave the group’s Camp.

Batul Soltani and Afshin Kalantari both German citizen attacked and beaten by the MEK agents as soon as they arrived in Tirana International airport.

Batul Soltani

The two German citizens, Batool Soltani and Afshin Kalantari were being held at Tirana International Airport and not allowed to enter the Albanian territory. The Albanian border police declared that they cannot guarantee the security of these two defectors of the MEK against the threats of the group’s agents, according to ASILA members who were present at the airport.

Batoul Soltani who left the MEK’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq in December 2006 was the first female defector of the Cult of Rajavi who revealed Massoud Rajavi’s polygamy cult. She was one of the victims of Rajavi’s sex cult.
Her testimonies were then confirmed by other female defectors of Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality although so many of them preferred to remain unknown for public. Iraj Mesdaghi, the MEK’s former member and one of its critics who also played a key role in Hamid Nouri’s arrest and his eventual trial in Sweden, confirmed Soltani’s revelations based on the testimonies of a number of other female defectors.

Iraj Mesdaghi

In an interview with Sahar Tavili, the Iranian-American journalist and researcher, in March 2021 Mesdaghi approves what Soltani exposed about nude dancing of female members of the MEK’s Elite Council in front of Massoud Rajavi before being selected to sleep with him.

Soltani seems to be one of the most hated defectors of the MEK cult. At least four of her ex-comrades named Fatemeh Kheradmand, Zakieh Hojati, Sedigheh Ebrahimzadeh and Nasrin Nowzari had been sent to the Airport to threaten her to death. “Pointing at me, they threatened me, ‘Get out of Tirana! Otherwise, we will kill you ourselves,” Soltani reports in a video that she published in social media.

Recounting Mesdaghi’s words about MEK’s female members seems to be significant here: “They are like zombies. They are under constant manipulation techniques. Before going to private meetings, they have to write love letters to Massoud Rajavi expressing their love for him. If they disobey, they go under severe peer pressure. They are verbally abused with the most horrific words.”

The MEK female members at the Tirana Airport to attack Batul Soltani

Soltani and Kalantari were kept at the airport under severe circumstances for at least 40 hours. They were finally deported to Germany. This indicates a strange process in the regulations of Albanian security system.
The Albanian historian, Olsi Jazexhi clarifies in his tweets: “Mujahedin command control over Rinas airport in Albania. Two mujahedin commanders Zakiyeh Hojati and Fatemeh Kheradmand break the law, enter in the transit zone and deport German, British and Austrian citizens who visit Albania. When you visit Rinas airport in Tirana, Albania you will see mujahedin commanders who check international visitors to Albania. If you look Iranian the vigilantes with police will deport you. A good Iranian is a dead Iranian for Maryam Rajavi.”

It is worth to know that the MEK labels Soltani and her companions, Iraj Mesdaghi and Olsi Jazexhi as agents of the Iranian government and so terrorists who want to attack the MEK camp! This is while the MEK agents simply attack these ex-members just because they defected the group and revealed its true nature.

August 2, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

ASILA celebrating the marriage of Gholamreza Shekari

GholamReza Shekari, former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq got married a few years after his defection from the group. The wedding celebration was held in the yard of the building of the Association for the support of the Iranians living in Albania (ASILA).

ASILA celebrating the marriage of Gholamreza Shekari

Gholam Shekari, 53, spent 27 years under Rajavi’s cult of personality. He defected the group after it was relocated in Albania in 2016. Shekari was soon deradicalized after he joined the Albanian society. He succeeded to build a new life in the free world. He is an active member of ASILA working to aid defectors who can manage to leave the group’s camp.

July 31, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Former member: the MEK commanders spy on my cellphone

While the mujahedin-e Khalq Organization’s propaganda machine endeavors to label its former members as spies of the Iranian government, the most recently defected member, Mostafa (Milad) Beheshti stated that his cellphone has been spied by the group commanders shortly after his departure from Camp Ashraf 3 in March 2021.

Mostafa Beheshti officially declared his defections from the MEK a few weeks ago. Then, he joined the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA). Once he was completely independent from the MEK, he found the courage to begin denouncing the group.
Mostafa has posted several facts on what he experienced under the MEK’s cult-like oppressive ruling on his accounts in social media. MEK commanders’ spying on Mostafa’s cellphone is one of his testimonies on MEK’s Gestapo-like atmosphere that he published on his Facebook account, on July 14th, 2022:

Mostafa Beheshti

“A few days after my departure from Camp Ashraf 3 in March 2021, Javad Khorasan [An MEK commander] asked me to go to the camp, he wanted to talk to me. I took my phone with me and put it in a locker in the entrance of the camp. I had bought it a few days earlier. It had no problem. When I got back and took it, the phone was not working. The screen started going black constantly. I noticed that the messages on my WhatsApp and Telegram had been read, they had double blue ticks, although I had not read them yet.”

Mostafa took his cellphone to the store he had purchased it from. The salesman kept the phone for a day to fix it. The next day Mostafa got back to the store and heard the horrific news. “The man asked me where I had taken the phone,” he recounts on his Facebook. “He kept on saying that an external cable must have been connected to my phone and a virus has entered it. He said that all my pictures, messages and contacts had been copied from my mobile. He told me that the phone was no more safe to use. I was shocked. The man showed me a package including a harmful virus on the phone warning me that all my contacts could be monitored since then.”

Mostafa Beheshti left that phone and bought a new one and since then whenever he wanted to go to Camp Ashraf 3, he did not take his phone. “Abdollah and Javad Khorasan [MEK commanders] asked me each time why I had not taken my cellphone,” Mostafa writes. “When I told them about what they did with my phone, they did not admit and told that the Iranian regime did it!” Mostafa Beheshti warned other defectors of the MEK about the spying project of MEK leaders on defectors’ personal life outside Camp Ashraf.

The coincidence is that Mostafa Beheshti was persecuted by the Albanian anti-terrorism Police on the same day he published this post. Beheshti together with 19 other members of ASILA were kept in Police department under the allegations of spying for the Iranian government. Their apartments, cars and the office of ASILA were investigated by the Police but nothing illegal was found. The police presented the documents of their final reports on not having found anything illegal in the raid on ASILA members’ properties.

Mostafa and his friends were freed a few hours later while the MEK’s propaganda machine is still propagating disinformation about its former members. The MEK leaders do not admit that each of these people had worked for them for dozens of years before their defection, instead they make efforts to revenge them by labeling them “as agents of the Iranian regime MOIS and IRGC, who have been parroting the regime’s talking points against the MEK under the banner of “former MEK members”.”

The only “crime” of MEK defectors, according to the leaders of the group, is that they did not want to stay in the cult. They want a normal life in free world without being continuously scrutinized by leaders of the Cult of Rajavi.

July 20, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Mostafa Beheshti declared defection from the MEK

Mostafa (Milad) Beheshti announced his separation from the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Mostafa Beheshti born in 1983 was recruited by the MEK agents in Turkey in 2001 when he was only eighteen years old. He was actually supposed to join his brother in Turkey but MEK recruiters smuggled him to Iraq.

Mostafa Beheshti

“In Baghdad, I was taken to the MEK’s base where a woman named Parvin (Zohreh Shafai) talked to me telling me that I would be taken to Camp Ashraf before being sent to Europe,” Mostafa writes in the letter to announce his complete defection from the MEK. He was promised for a good life in Europe the same as many other young members of the group.

Zohreh Shafai the MEK commander promised Mostafa that he would visit his brother Morteza in the MEK. The two brothers visited each other after 20 days. “My brother asked me why I was there,” he writes. “I told him that I was waiting for him to get his documents for taking refuge in Europe. My brother did not say anything. He just looked down and kept silent. He looked so sad.”

In the MEK, Mostafa and Morteza were not allowed to contact their families in Iran. Their family especially their sister Narges used to travel to Iraq picketing in front of the gates of Camp Ashraf and then Camp Liberty calling on their names.

About MEK’s hostility towards families, Mostafa Beheshti writes, “During the years I was in the MEK, in Iraq, my family came behind the fences around Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty but they were never allowed to meet me and each time I had to take position against my family, sighing the scripts the commanders had prepared for me.”

Narges Beheshti behind the fences of Camp Ashraf

Morteza left the MEK in March 2021 although he had dissociated himself from the regulations ruling the MEK cult, one and a half years earlier. He insisted on his decision to leave the group and finally he succeeded to leave the group’s Camp Ashraf 3, in Albania. “I repeated my demand to leave the group several times, I insisted and endured too many difficulties to stay determined to defect the MEK,” he asserts.

After leaving the MEK headquarter, Mostafa had to get back to them every month in order to receive some money. The MEK commanders wanted him to spy on other defectors of the group in Albania in exchange for the money. “Each time they put a paper in front of me and asked me to sign what they had written,” he writes.

Mostafa is free now. He has joined the independent defectors of the MEK living in Tirana. “Although I suffered a painful life in the MEK for many years, I will build my life with the help and empathy from my family and friends,” he writes. “That nightmare has finished,”

Mostafa’s older brother Morteza Beheshti, was killed in the clashes between Iraqi forces and the MEK’s rank and file, in April 2011. At the time, Massoud Rajavi had ordered the unarmed members of his cult to make a human shield before Iraqi armed forces who wanted to settle a station in Camp Ashraf

July 9, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

ASILA optimistic about more escapes from Camp Ashraf 3

The establishment of the Association to Support the Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) was an opening to the path families of members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq have been going through during the two past decades. ASILA is a shelter for defectors of the MEK to stay safe against the threats created by the group. The association’s executive director Hassan Heirani is the key Iranian member of ASILA who is actively working for ASILA’s mission.

Hassan Heirani interviewd by Alizadeh

Heirani was recently interviewed by another former member of the MEK living in Iran, Bakhshali Alizadeh. Alizadeh, a member of Nejat Society Tehran office, sked him about the recent conditions ruling MEK’s hostages in Camp Ashraf 3, Albania. Heirani said:
“An MEK hostage, named Mahmoud Dehghani has recently succeeded to escape Camp Ashraf 3. The MEK-run media has not published the news on his escape yet. Mahmoud Dehghani is free now. Immediately after he fled the group, we informed the Albanian Police and the International bodies about his defection from the MEK. The Albanian Police has told the MEK that Mahmoud Dehghani has decided to leave the group by his free will and so they cannot hand him back to the group. This was a crucial point for the MEK. We also realized that the Albanian Police is not supporting the MEK anymore. Thus, we got hopeful that more hostages will find the chance to escape the MEK.”

Bakhshali Alizadeh asked Heirani about life conditions of the MEK defectors who are members of ASILA right now. “All of our friends have jobs earning their own income expect for two of them who are too old to work,” he answered. “They may face difficulties to make a living but they enjoy their freedom unlike when they were in the MEK that were not able even to choose the color of their socks.”

Asked about the part that families can play to aid ASILA reach its goals, Heirani said:
“ASILA is like a tree that its branches grow in Albania but its roots are among families in Iran, those who are expecting the release of their loved ones in the MEK. Families and their support are our main resources. The actions they take wipe out all the propaganda and disinformation that the MEK launches. The MEK cult did not want the Albanian authorities to understand that it does not allow members to contact their families but letters and video messages sent by families have warned the Albanian government about the fraudulent and undemocratic approach of the MEK.”

Heirani assured families that all video messages and letters sent by families are translated to Albanian language and referred to the authorities of the country. “Families should keep on the good work by sending their messages,” he said. “We get more confident and keep on going forward every single day.”

July 6, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Dariush Qanavati’s Prison Break, an Account of Escaping Camp Ashraf

Dariush Qanavati, 47, from Mahshar, Khuzestan is a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization. He joined the group in 1999, when he was 24. As a young enthusiastic Iranian, he thought that the MEK would help him eradicate injustice from the Iranian society but after he arrived in the group’s headquarter in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, he realized that he was on the wrong path. For years, he was looking for an opportunity to escape the bars of the oppressive unjust Cult of Rajavi. Finally, he could manage to escape Camp Ashraf in 2004.
After the US invasion to Iraq and the disarmament of the MEK, in 2003, the group was concentrate in Camp Ashraf under supervision of US military. The other day, the commander Sediqeh Hosseini spoke of a Mujahed who had fled the camp and gone to the US camp, located by the side of Camp Ashraf. Thus, Dariush got to know that there was a way to escape the isolated bars of the MEK.

Dariush Qanavati

A few months later, American forces let families of the MEK members enter Camp Ashraf. The group commanders could not prevent members from visiting their parents but they made efforts to brainwash members before they met their families. However, a group of members never got back to the MEK’s camp. Visiting families had awaken the emotions in the heart of members. “During a short time after the family visits, a large number of the group members escaped or defected the group gradually,” Daiush writes in his memoirs. “I was also seeking an opportunity to release myself from the hellish Cult of Rajavi.”

On March, 26, 2004, Dariush found it a good chance to escape the camp. He recounts, “It was Friday, 9 am. Commanders had gone to a meeting in another unit. I used the opportunity. I had already prepared myself. I got on my work clothes and went to the tomato farm. Then I went to the motor parking and from there I went behind the embankment and then I rushed to the fences.”

It was too dangerous, Dariush risked his life but it was worth getting liberated from the MEK. “A few American officers were patrolling there,” he recalls. “I called them and said ‘help me! I want to come with you.’ There were two MEK guarding stations a few hundred meters away so I was lying down on the ground. The American officer talked on his walkie talkie and reported to his superior. It took a few minutes but it was like forever to me. I was so frightened of getting arrested by the MEK agents.”

Dariush was lucky. The American officers took him to TIPF camp where other escapees of the MEK had been settled. “The moment I got on the US vehicle was the best moment of my life,” he writes. “I was so happy. The Americans took me to TIPF where other defectors of the group welcomed me warmly. Chanting ‘Down with Rajavi’, we hugged each other.”

In contrast with the group’s propaganda about TIPF the atmosphere of the camp was friendly. “We were friends sharing a past life ruined by Rajavi but we were hopeful about the future,” Dariush writes. After a few months, Dariush Qanavati got back to Iran and joined his family. He is now an active member of Nejat Society in the campaign to save other hostages of the Cult of Rajavi.

June 27, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Heidarzadeh: the MEK are like dinosaurs in Iran

Parviz Heidarzadeh, former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq left the group after it was relocated in Albania in 2016. He lived independently in Albania for five years and he returned to his family in north of Iran, a few months ago. He spoke on the MEK’s cult-like suppressive atmosphere, in a meeting with a group of families of members of the MEK who are still mentally and physically banned under the group’s propaganda and cult system in Albania. “The MEK’s propaganda about its public support in Iran is totally false,” he said. “They are like dinosaurs here. They are extinct. The youth do not know them at all.”

Heidarzadeh emphasized that the determination to leave the MEK system requires courage. He said, “I just advise my ex-comrades in the MEK not to be afraid of the group’s disinformation about the outside world. Just make your mind and release yourself.”

Parviz Heydarzadeh

About the atmosphere ruling the Cult of Rajavi, Heidarzadeh stated, “Members are forced to work hard. Under severe forced labor, they never find a chance to think about their families. At night, they are so exhausted that they are not able to think of their own personal affairs.”
He explained about the conditions of MEK members in the Albanian territory, “Members are ordered to spy on each other. They have to report on their peers to the group’s commanders. If they see other defectors in the streets of Tirana, they will not be allowed to talk to them, instead they have to report everything they saw to the group.”

Regarding the families of MEK’s hostages, Heidarzadeh emphasized that in contrast with MEK members, families have access to all human rights bodies and international organizations. He told families, “You can take many actions in order to liberate your loved ones from the MEK; you can write letters, you can contact the International community to call for aid.”

According to Parviz Heidarzadeh, the MEK is in decline. “The group’s youngest members are in their forties,” he said. “No new generation has been born in the MEK in the past years. The youngest members who were children of Mujahed parents left the group immediately after it was settled in Albania. Thus, The MEK leaders are just making efforts to maintain the current forces.”

June 21, 2022 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Ali Ekrami’s prison break, an account of escaping Camp Ashraf

Ali Ekrami former member of the Mujahedin Khalq recruited by a friend when he was a student of oil faculty in Abadan, south west of Iran. He left his hometown, his family and especially his sick mother behind to join the group in Iraq. After over 27 years of living under the rule of the Cult of Rajavi, Ali Ekrami decided to escape the group’s headquarters, Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

Following the collapse of the MEK’s main military and financial sponsor, Saddam Hussein, the group was disarmed by the US army. Ali Ekrami was already fed up with dishonesty, violence and suppression he was witnessing in the MEK. He was determined to escape the group but he was terrified because of the group’s disinformation about defectors and escapees of Camp Ashraf.

Ali Ekrami

Nevertheless, he made his mind that night after reviewing his entire experience as an MEK member. “I was on my guarding post that night in one of the guard towers on the eastern side of Camp Ashraf when I came to a conclusion of my past life and I tried to find a way to break through that situation,” Ekrami writes in his autobiography, published a few months ago.

As Ekrami reviews his own involvement with the MEK, he also evaluates the MEK’s history including its armed struggle against Iranians, the escape of Massoud Rajavi from Iran, the marriage of Massoud and Maryam in Paris and their taking shelter under Saddam Hussein, the enemy at war with Iran. “It was like a nightmare,” he writes. “I had reached the point of complete hatred and disgust. I thought I did not have anything to do with the MEK any more. I was more determined to leave the group as any time I was before.”

Thus, he looked for an opportunity to escape the Cult of Rajavi. As a trusted member of the MEK, he was offered a new position. He was appointed as the MEK’s deputy to negotiate with Iraqi university professors. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to escape Camp Ashraf,” he writes. “I expressed my agreement, signed a form and got out to pack my bag.”

The next day, Ali Ekrami was supposed to move to the university. He got on the jeep that a friend of his was driving to go there. “In the way, I looked closely to find an American Hummer to surrender myself to them,” he says. “Luckily, I saw one in the street 100 of Camp Ashraf. This was the chance I have been looking for since months ago. I told my friend, ‘Stop the car! I feel nauseous and dizzy’.”

His friend stopped the car immediately and gave Ekrami a bottle of water. He took the bottle, splashed some water on his face and rushed to the American car. He recounts, “I knocked the wind shield. The American soldier opened the door. I told him, ‘I need help. I do not want to stay in the MEK. Help! Help!’ The black soldier and his commander took me on their car and drove fast to their camp. My friend was shocked staring at me getting far from him and Ashraf.”

Looking back, Ali Ekrami started shouting, “Damn Ashraf! Damn the Mujahedin_e Khalq! Down with Rajavi! Down with fraudulent Rajavi! You betrayed the hope and trust of a generation.”

June 13, 2022 0 comments

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