On July 12, 2022, Albanian media reported that dozens of Iranians have been arrested and are under investigation due to their alleged links with Iran’s regime and its Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Forces.
According to Voxnews in Albania, “At the request of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, examinations are being carried out in their homes. Most of them have been under investigation for three years!”
According to Albanian outlets, these individuals are suspected of carrying out “proscribed activities on behalf of the IRGC and Secret Services” inside the Albanian territory.
Who are the arrestees?
The arrested individuals include Hassan Heyrani, Mehdi Soleimani, Gholamreza Shekari, Mostafa Beheshti, Abdolrahman Mohammadian, Hassan Shahbaz, Sarfaraz Rahimi, Mahmoud Dehghan, Mohammad Reza Sediq, Reza Eslami, and Ali Hajari.
They introduce themselves as former members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Iran’s main opposition group. The Iranian Resistance has previously exposed these individuals 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.”
A history of service for Iran’s regime
In February 2021, the Iranian Resistance published a letter by a former MOIS operative who resided in Albania. In his letter, Hadi Sani-Khani unveiled and documented the details of a new and shocking campaign of demonization, espionage, and terrorism against the MEK and Ashraf 3, their compound near the city of Durres. Unsurprisingly, many of the people who were recently rounded up by Albanian authorities were mentioned in his letter.
“I began to collaborate with official agents of the MOIS in the Embassy in Albania, such as Fereidoun Zandi Ali-Abadi and notorious MOIS agents, including Ebrahim and Massoud Khodabandeh, Gholamreza Shekari and Ehsan Bidi and later Hassan Heyrani. They used me in demonization, espionage, intelligence gathering, and reconnoitering schemes to carry out terrorist actions against the PMOI,” Sani-Khani wrote.
Heyrani and other MOIS agents were used as “sources” of the regime’s “friendly journalists” in their hit pieces against the MEK. These articles, rehashing the regime’s fabricated lies against its main alternative, had all presented regime’s agents such as Heyrani, Bidi, and Shekari as reliable sources to accuse the MEK of human rights violations.
Unfortunately, some internationally recognized media outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, the Intercept, BBC, Der Spiegel, and Die Zeit published these stories by Tehran’s “friendly journalists.” Der Spiegel even went as far as to accuse the MEK members of practicing “gouging eyes” and “cutting limbs” in Ashraf 3. BBC brazenly claimed the “MEK members cannot think about sex.” As always, the so-called sources of these blatant lies were MOIS agents such as Heyrani.
Two court rulings in Hamburg, Germany, rejecting Der Spiegel’s lies and the public backlash to the biased articles published in other media outlets, ultimately resulted in their removal.
Tehran’s terrorist activities in Albania
The news of the recent arrest of the MOIS agents comes against the backdrop of increased activities by the Iranian regime against MEK members in Albania in recent years.
In 2019, the Albanian government ordered the arrest and expulsion of another MOIS agent, Ehsan Bidi, according to several Albanian outlets. The Interior Ministry of Albania designated Bidi as persona non grata and ordered his expulsion from Albanian soil on October 17
In the past years, Albania has given refuge to thousands of MEK members previously in Iraq, where they were constantly targeted by the Iranian regime and its allies in the Iraqi government. Since the relocation of MEK members to Albania and the establishment of Ashraf 3, Tehran has increased its presence in the country. It uses its diplomatic premises to conduct espionage and terror plots against its main opposition.
In July 2020, Albania’s Top Channel TV reported that “Albanian authorities have designated another Iranian individual as persona non grata (unwelcomed element) for his actions against the Iranian opposition” the MEK. This individual was later identified as Danial Kasraie, who had Italian citizenship. He was seen around Ashraf 3. According to reports issued by Albanian anti-terrorism agencies, he was classified as a dangerous figure who violates public security.
In October 2020, Albanian authorities arrested an Iranian spy on charges of “illegal interception of computer data,” “interference in computer systems,” “interference in computer data,” and “misuse of equipment.” Bijan Pooladrag was expelled from the MEK in September 2019 and was later recruited by the MOIS to spy on the MEK.
In October 2019, Albanian authorities revealed new information about a Tehran-affiliated terrorist group plotting against the MEK.
In March 2018, news broke that Albanian authorities had foiled a terrorist plot by the Iranian regime against MEK members in Tirana, who were gathering for the annual Nowruz celebrations.
The ongoing investigations against the MOIS agents arrested recently in Albania once again underline the need to curb Tehran’s terrorist activities. Besides, it has become abundantly clear that all allegations against the MEK come from Tehran.
As the Iranian Resistance has reiterated on many occasions:
- Agents and operatives of the Intelligence Ministry, the IRGC, and the terrorist Quds Forcemust be prosecuted, punished, and expelled from European territory.
- The MOIS and the IRGC must be included in the European Union’s terrorist list.
- The mullahs’ embassies and representations, which in reality are terror and espionage centers, must be shut down.
