Uniting for Freedom, Democracy & Equality

The MEK Shows Their Resilience in the Fight Across the Decades

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) recently published an essay written by a veteran member of the MEK, Mehdi Abrishamchi, who was previously a political prisoner under the dictatorship of the Shah.
Two Regimes(Monarchy and Mullahs) Failed to Destroy Iran’s Main Opposition Movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK)

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) recently published an essay written by a veteran member of the MEK, Mehdi Abrishamchi, who was previously a political prisoner under the dictatorship of the Shah.

The MEK was founded in 1965 by three progressive Muslim intellectuals and university graduates Mohammad Hanifnejad (often referred to as Hanif), Saeid Mohsen, and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan. Not only have the MEK fought against the tyranny of the Shah’s dictatorship, but to this day, they are continuing to fight against the oppression that the current Iranian regime are inflicting on Iran.

Founders of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK)
Founders of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK)

Abrishamchi said, “The MEK is the only multi-generational organization in the Iranian society that has survived and expanded starting with the baby boomers to Millennials. Throughout the last five decades, the MEK has attracted the best and brightest talent of the Iranian society, not just in numbers but also in terms of representation from Iran’s rich ethnic and demographic diversity.”

The MEK has strived to fully implement gender equality in the organization, both in theory and practice, even while facing huge sacrifices along their journey. They are proud that their members are free of gender biases that ‘plague many cultures and societies’ and work well together.

Abrishamchi said, “The MEK is the only organization in the world that has intimate knowledge regarding the threat of Islamic extremism or Islamic fundamentalism. We also have a concrete plan and expertise to defuse and defeat this global threat in its entirety.”

The Iranian Resistance’s leader, Massoud Rajavi joined the MEK in 1967, working directly with the founders of the organization. President-elect of the parliament-in-exile National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, who joined the MEK in 1973, said that the “MEK is a movement that adheres to democratic Islam and is the vanguard of struggle against religious tyranny and extremism. [Massoud Rajavi] has paid a heavy price to educate the generations that serve at the forefront of this struggle for freedom.”

Massoud Rajavi
Massoud Rajavi

Initially, the mullahs declared that the MEK was non-existent, however as the Iranian public became aware of more information as technology improved, the mullahs went on to portray the MEK as a non-influential exiled group with no connection to the rest of the Iranian society. In the late 90s, the regime tried to completely erase the MEK’s name from the memory of Iranians, by forbidding any mention of them in government publications and state-run media.

Abrishamchi said, “It is for this reason that perhaps a generation of Iranians born after 1988 had not even heard the name of the Mojahedin or MEK until more recently. In some cases, those who heard about us knew us as a distant enemy of the mullahs’ regime that doesn’t exist anymore.”

Thanks to the underground network in Iran, and their hard work fighting against the regime’s censorship, men and woman across Iran began to connect with the MEK, with many choosing to join the fight at the MEK’s bases near the Iran-Iraq border.

Abrishamchi said, “I share such examples to contextualize the environment that our movement has operated in since the 1979 revolution. Although the Shah’s regime used similar tactics against us, the depth and breadth of mullahs’ regime is vastly greater, which shows the extent to which they view the MEK as an existential threat that requires extensive resources to counter.”

Iranian Resistance Supporters Rally in Stockholm Simultaneous With the Anniversary of the Foundation of the PMOI/MEK — September 6, 2021

On Monday, September 6, 2021, on the anniversary of the foundation of the Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK), Iranians, supporters of the MEK, demonstrated in front of the court of the executioner Hamid Noury.

Noury is being tried for his role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, mostly members and supporters of the MEK.

They called for the prosecution of all perpetrators of the 1988 massacre in Iran. Also, they demanded the trial of the regime’s leaders include, supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the mass murderer Ebrahim Raisi and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the regime’s new judiciary chief. They committed genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre.

PMOI/MEK supporters expressed support for the Iranian resistance and the MEK.

MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm - September 6 - 1
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 1
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 2
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 2
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 3
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 3
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 4
MEK Supporters Rally in Stockholm — September 6, 2021 – 4

Human Rights Situation in Iran Is a Serious Concern Says UN Secretary General

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reported on September 4 that in a new report by Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, issued at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, it states that the human rights situation in Iran remains a serious concern under international human rights law.

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres

In his report, Guterres pointed out that the ‘impediments to the rule of law and weak justice and accountability mechanisms’ have effectively given the officials in the Iranian regime impunity from their human rights abuses and persistent executions of dissidents, ethnic minorities and defenders of human rights.

The MEK said, “Among the executed are members of the Baluch, Kurdish, and Arab minorities, with many more prisoners have been sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) and vague security charges that the regime often uses against minorities and dissidents.”

Guterres raised further concern over the regime’s executions of protesters in 2020, including the execution of wrestling champion Navid Afkari and Mostafa Salehi who were both arrested for taking part in protests against the regime, as well as the alarming number of executions of juvenile offenders. In his report Guterres said, “[The] application of the death penalty on child offenders constitutes a serious breach of international law.”

The MEK said, “The Secretary General’s report contains accounts of poor conditions in Iran’s prisons, crackdown on peaceful protests, and a corrupt judiciary system that provides impunity to regime authorities and deprives dissidents and activists of justice.”

One example stated in the report was the case of Maryam Akbari Monfared. She was sentenced to a 15-year sentence for her participation in protests in 2009. In her 12th year behind bars, she has experienced an increase in harassment and neglection of her medical issues as a result of her filing a formal complaint and trying to seek an investigation into the executions of her siblings and other political prisoners in 1988.

Following the report from the United Nations Secretary-General, Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said that the Iranian people and the Resistance are calling on the UN Security Council to prosecute the regime officials responsible for crimes against humanity that have taken place across Iran in the past four decades.

She said, “The Iranian regime is leading violator of human rights, the most active state sponsor of terror, and the foremost threat to peace and security in the world today. It must be subjected to international sanctions under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter.”

The MEK said, “The UN Secretary General’s report comes in tandem with another report by the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances that raises concern over the regime’s continued cover-up of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.”

The report explains how the UN Working Group have expressed their concerns about the regime’s concealment of the many burial sites across Iran of the victims that were forcibly disappeared and ultimately executed in the summer of 1988, and states that they are calling for an international investigation into the matter.

MEK Resistance Units in Iran: Celebrating of the MEK Founding Anniversary

Resistance Units Celebrated MEK Anniversary of Foundation in Iran
Resistance Units Celebrated MEK Anniversary of Foundation in Iran

September 4, 2021 : September 6 is the 56th anniversary of the foundation of the most organized Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This year is the beginning of the 57th year of the glorious life of the PMOI/MEK.

The network of the MEK inside Iran, known as the Resistance Units, organized a vast campaign across the country installing posters and images of the MEK.

They pledge to continue the Resistance inside Iran to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.

MEK Resistance Units in Iran celebrate the 57th MEK foundation anniversary

September 3, 2021—The network of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside Iran celebrated the 56th anniversary of the Organization’s foundation on September 6, 1965.
The MEK is the longest-standing organized opposition movement that has fought two dictatorships of the Shah and the mullahs.
In the last 42 years since the mullahs took power, more than 120,000 MEK members and supporters have been executed in Iran. More than 30,000 of them were executed in a matter of weeks in the summer of 1988.
These executions were carried out by a so-called four-member “death commission” in various cities. The current Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was a key member of Tehran’s death commission and is known for being the butcher of the MEK.

Celebrating of the MEK Founding Anniversary by Reistance Units inside Iran
Celebrating of the MEK Founding Anniversary by Reistance Units inside Iran

Leaked Video of Iran’s Evin Prison

Hacked footage from security cameras in Iran’s Evin Prison and the publication of some of the prison’s documents published online by a group of hackers “Edalat-e Ali” (Ali’s Justice) revealed a fraction of the crimes committed in Iran’s prisons.

The footage shows guards beating and dragging prisoners on the floor. The videos also show inmates attempting to commit suicide, overcrowded cells, and cells with horrible conditions.

For more information about this, please watch the video:

Calls for the West to Increase Pressure on Iran’s Nuclear Program

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported on September 4 that as the dust settles on Ebrahim Raisi’s new cabinet, there are expectations that the Iranian regime will soon begin accelerating their crackdown on dissidents and other destructive activities.

On August 30, saw the appointment of the latest addition to Raisi’s administration. Mohammad Eslami is set to take over the top position of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), a role which Ali Akbar Salehi has held since 2013.

The NCRI said, “Under Salehi’s stewardship, the AEOI was engaged in a strategy of duplicity, which allowed the regime to advance key aspects of its nuclear program while only seeming to comply with international inspectors over imposed restrictions.”

Two years ago, Salehi spoke to state media and admitted that the regime had conned the International Atomic Energy Organization into believing that they had deactivated the core of the Arak heavy water plant by using decoy components and doctored photographs. They had been required to do so as part of the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), however this deception allowed the regime to continue their path towards nuclear weapons capability secretly.

In February of this year, Mahmoud Alavi, the regime’s Intelligence Minister, claimed that the regime’s nuclear activities were purely intended for civilian research and the generation of power, before referencing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s fatwa which claims that Iran aren’t intentionally trying to ‘break out’ to nuclear weapons capability.

Alavi said, “The fatwa forbids the production of nuclear weapons, but if they push Iran in those directions, it is not Iran’s fault. Those who pushed Iran in that direction will be to blame.”

Tehran continues to demand that all U.S. nuclear sanctions should be lifted before they will consider scaling back on their JCPOA violations, which have only encouraged Iran to reach higher levels of uranium enrichment.

The NCRI said, “Raisi, with his new AEOI head Mohammad Eslami, will be more focused on intimidation and blackmail in an effort to extract concessions and allow themselves to declare victory over Western powers.”

Both Raisi and Eslami have a history of deception. Raisi has greatly assisted with regime efforts to downplay and attempt to cover up the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, an event in which he played a main part of. Eslami, during his position as the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, helped to provide a cover story for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2020 when they launched a missile attack on a commercial airplane, killing everyone on board.

It is likely that Eslami will use his deception skills to deny the future actions of the AEOI and will continue further down the road of nuclear weapons capability.

The NCRI said, “Eslami’s appointment as AEOI head provides him with an unprecedented opportunity to carry on these activities even while serving on teams tasked with directly negotiating with Western powers that remain hopelessly committed to the JCPOA. To end the regime’s race toward a nuclear bomb, the western powers should instead increase pressure on the regime.”

Dominique Attias’s Remarks to the International Conference on the 1988 Massacre — August 27, 2021

Dominique Attias, French lawyer specializing in personal rights, juvenile law and violence against women, addressed at the International Conference on the 1988 Massacre, attended by 1,000 Former Political Prisoners — 27 August 2021.

Summary of the speech of Dominique Attias in English:

This is a grave day. We know what is happening in Iran. Thanks to you and your efforts, these martyrs will be avenged. These murderers have reached the peak of their crimes. This destruction of lives of mothers, sisters, children.

This is a crime against humanity. This has to be stopped. Europeans and the entire world are silent. Today, a murderer is ruling Iran. The Iranian parliament might have accepted him, but we won’t. Iranian women will not accept him. Women are a fundamental element of the society.

If we close our eyes, we will be responsible too. The Bar Association of Europe will stand with you.

Dominique Attias speech in French:

Madame Radjavi, vous êtes l’étoile qui brillait dans l’obscurité. Aujourd’hui est un jour grave. Nous savons ce qui se passe dans un pays à côté de l’Iran.

La lumière viendra des femmes, des Iraniennes.

Grâce à vous, grâce à ces femmes qui sont à vos côtés, grâce à ces hommes qui sont à vos côtés. Toutes ces femmes, toutes ces jeunes femmes martyres. Oh ! Elles seront vengées, oui, vengées. Car ces bourreaux ont semé la mort. Ont semé la tristesse. Ont semé la désolation, ont arraché des vies. Des mères, des veuves, des enfants pleurent encore. Oui, c’est un génocide. Oui. C’est un crime contre l’humanité. Stop stop à cette lâcheté qui fait qu’on nous européens et même le monde entier se détournent.

Aujourd’hui. Un bourreau aux mains pleines de sang règne sur l’Iran. J’ai vu le Parlement. Qu’il a adoubé. Mais vous, Mais nous, nous ne l’accepterons jamais. Les Iraniennes ne l’accepteront jamais. Car la place de la femme est fondamentale et elles ont été éradiquées en 1988. Si peu de survivantes. Tant de massacres. Si l’on ferme les yeux, c’est chez nous que ça ira également. Les femmes sont ces étoiles du monde qui éclairent. Et qui toujours, toujours, montreront le chemin de la justice.

Je serai toujours à vos côtés, les barreaux européens seront toujours à vos côtés. Nous sommes cinquante-deux pour cent de l’humanité, nous les femmes. Majoritaires dans les pays, dans les barreaux. Nous sommes partout et pourtant. On n’entend pas nos voix. C’est. C’est fini. Et vous, madame Radjavi, vous êtes là pour porter si haut, si clairement, si courageusement, vous êtes la présidente de l’Iran. Et nous serons avec vous jusqu’à la fin. Portant des roses rouges, en faveur de toutes ces femmes qui ne sont plus parmi nous….

Merci de m’avoir donné la parole je serais toujours à vos côtés, toujours aux côtés des iraniennes et des Iraniens de bonne volonté, merci.

Franco Frattini’s Remarks to the International Conference on the 1988 Massacre — August 27, 2021

Franco Frattini, Foreign Minister of Italy (2002-2004 and 2008-2011), addressed at the International Conference on the 1988 Massacre, attended by 1,000 Former Political Prisoners — 27 August 2021.

Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, Madame President, first of all, very happy to see you once again, although virtually.

First of all, I’d like to pay tribute to the victims, to the families of the opponents to the regime. MEK members and supporters and all Iranians, who were and are loyal to the principles of no-negotiable freedom and democracy in your country that does not deserve oppression, repression and all forms of inequal treatment, like denying Iranian Covid-19 vaccines that are saving lives in my country and all other countries.

So full sympathy to the victims of the executions, in particular those ordered in 1988 and implemented under the so-called group of four that included designated by Khamenei as current president of Iran. Any person paying with his or her life because of a fight for no-negotiable fundamental rights is forever a source of inspiration for the new generation. Now, I would like to say something that has not been said yet.

The first action of the new government of Iran shows significant and clear continuity with the predecessors. For example, on the appointment of the new foreign minister that has served as a deputy foreign minister under Ahmadinejad, under Rouhani, then as advisor of the president of the parliament till the appointment as foreign minister under the current designated president. Could someone has doubts on the sometimes affirmed differences between the so-called conservatives and reformer? I have no doubts. It’s always the same story. It is always the same regime.

And so as confirming the new foreign minister closeness and dependence to Quds Force, when he said a few days ago, this month in August, I quote ‘in foreign policy, I will continue the path of Qassem Soleimani’, who everybody in the world knows his hands were bloody hands. This phrase is the confirmation of a key element concerning the new government and the new composition of this government.

I think, another important thing to be taken into consideration is the most blatant contradiction between proclaims and the deeds of the regime. Particularly on the 1988 massive execution of political prisoners is the following: I heard myself as a former Italian foreign minister, many statements at the openings of many General Assemblies that always the Iranian presidents have spoken on their full attachment to the UN values that first, as you all know, contemplates no-negotiable people’s rights, to life and dignity.

But ladies and gentlemen, Madame President, in practice, a regime having lost by far, the popular support applies for the rule of gun instead of the rule of law. It is a sad reality for your people, for your compatriots. As it has been said since September 2020, many requested to open finally, and they requested to the current High Commissioner for Human Rights, respected Madame Bachelet to open finally an international investigation over the 1988 Massacre. Amnesty International made a similar request, and rightly added that the current presidential role in Iran is in no way a possible justification for an exemption from the investigation.

So, I agree completely, being myself a judge, with this point of view. I wish finally an independent international investigation with no limitations linked to the role, current or former role will be opened. The same was confirmed by the respected UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights in Iran. So, ladies and Gentlemen, the credibility of the United Nation system is at steak now. I would be a bit brutal, but I can afford to be a bit brutal because such a tragedy and crime against humanity has taken place. Because Iran uses to act against the key value of United Nations, human rights ruled, while before the TVs at the UN General Assembly affirms the opposite.

But, ladies and gentlemen, Madam president, universal right promotion and protection cannot, and I say so also as the former European Vice President and Justice commissioner as well as the founder of the European Fundamental Rights Agency, I say: a right promotion does not belong to the arbitrium of the party concerned.

We need independency in the investigation. Iran obviously will never accept the rules of the UN International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But this is why the United Nation Security Council has, in my personal view, first, a moral duty. UN owes its moral duty to the innocent victims. And the duty is to try to send the case to The Hague Court. Let’s seek for Justice. If that would be proved impossible, at least let’s go ahead now with the serious investigation international investigation.

Of course, this never never never will bring the victims resurrection, unfortunately. But ladies and gentlemen, the UN credibility would be in this case tremendously stronger and the same applies for our Europe, for my country Italy for our Europe. We used to go ourselves the length of rights. It is the right moment to show that to the rest of the world now. Thank you very much.

Calls for the UN to End the Iranian Regime’s Impunity

As the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported on September 2, Iran now has Ebrahim Raisi, an ‘international criminal’ as their new president which has sparked many calls for the United Nations to end the Iranian regime’s impunity and hold their criminals to account for their crimes against humanity.

The NCRI said, “According to detailed reports by leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Raisi is guilty of crimes against humanity committed in 1988, including the slaughter of thousands of political prisoners.”

33 years ago, a fatwa was issued by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini stating that those in prison who opposed the regime’s theocracy would face a death sentence. The murder of 30,000 political prisoners, many of whom were affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), was carried out by a ‘Death Committee’, which featured Ebrahim Raisi as a central figure.

The NCRI said, “Prisons in Iran, crammed with opponents of the regime at the time, suddenly went into lockdown. All family visits were cancelled. The only permitted visitation was from a delegation, turbaned and bearded, which came in black government BMWs to outlying jails.”

A religious judge, a public prosecutor, and an intelligence chief made up the delegation of the ‘Death Commissions’ visited prisons across Iran to question the young men and women serving time about their affiliations. Those who admitted to being members of the MEK were blindfolded and line up, headed for the gallows to be hanged, while others lost their lives at the hands of firing squads.

The NCRI said, “They were hung from cranes 12 at a time from ropes at the prison assembly hall stage, called Hosseiniyeh. Their bodies were packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves.”

Months after the atrocities, desperate for information about their relatives, families of the victims were given plastic bags of a few possessions and told to never mourn their loved ones in public. Their request for information about the fates of their relatives was refused, and to this day, no information has ever been given about the location of the mass graves.

Despite being informed of the executions by UN rapporteur, Reynaldo Galindo Pol, who visited Iran in 1989, the United Nations turned a blind eye to the situation and never followed up with any investigations.

For a long time, Iranian resistance has called to U.N. and international community for an end to three decades of impunity for Iran regime’s leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre.
For a long time, Iranian resistance has called to U.N. and international community for an end to three decades of impunity for Iran regime’s leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre.

The NCRI said, “Sadly, the UN has failed in its duty to hold these criminals against humanity accountable. Raisi has since acted with impunity, ordering the executions of more protesters, particularly during the November 2019 uprisings.”

With Raisi’s ascent to the presidential role, the time has come for the UN and the international community to act and hold Raisi and other guilty regime officials accountable for their roles during the summer of 1988, along with other crimes against humanity.

The NCRI said, “Name them, shame them, and blame them, because, in that way, we can go on the offensive against the perpetrators of one of the worst crimes since the Second World War, one of the worst crimes against humanity, the 1988 Massacre.”

Iranians, Supporters of the MEK, and Relatives of 1988 Massacre Martyrs Demonstrated in Stockholm — September 3, 2021

Iranians, supporters of the People’s Mohjahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and relatives of the martyrs of the 1988 massacre demonstrated on Friday, September 3, 2021, simultaneous with the eleventh session of trial of the executioner Hamid Noury.

The demonstrators demanded the trial of the regime’s leaders include, supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the mass murderer Ebrahim Raisi and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the regime’s new judiciary chief. They committed genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre.

Iranians, Supporters of the MEK, and Relatives of 1988 Massacre Martyrs Demonstrated in Stockholm — September 3, 2021
Iranians, Supporters of the MEK, and Relatives of 1988 Massacre Martyrs Demonstrated in Stockholm — September 3, 2021