On July 13, 2019, dignitaries from dozens of countries across the world attended the main event of the Free Iran 2019 international conference. The conference was part of the five-day Free Iran 2019 series of conferences at the main headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Ashraf 3, Albania. Several dignitaries, political and human rights activists delivered speeches, issuing remarks about the struggles of the Iranian people and their resistance movement for freedom in their country.
Following are key remarks by former Director of the FBI Louis Freeh at the Ashraf 3 conference.
Louis Freeh:
Thank you. I am very, very honored to be here today with you. And your inspiration, your prayers, your support, your commitment in spirit for freedom have carried you so far in such a short period of time. Madame [Maryam] Rajavi, we salute you, we respect you for not just the leadership and the courage that you’ve shown but the ability to move this peace commitment as far as it’s moved in such a short period of time.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh:
“Change is coming to Iran. We have to get ready to prosecute the criminals in Iran’s regime who have murdered & assassinated, not by accident, but by a designed plan to mass murder a group of people”#FreeIran#WeSupportMEK#IStandWithMaryamRajavi pic.twitter.com/MoHM0OnZEp— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) July 13, 2019
So not too many years ago, we were all in this room and many others worried for the life, the safety and the life of all of the Ashrafis present here and many who have been killed. In the United States of America, those of us who supported for you became the subjects of criminal investigations by our own government. And we actually welcome that. How great to investigate former attorney generals, former directors of the FBI and the CIA, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, military general, the Speaker of the House, and I could go on and on. But you know, they didn’t ask us any questions. And that was consistent with when I was the director in 1997; nobody asked me any questions about the MEK before the administration unjustifiably put you on the terrorism list. And why did they do that? There’s a lot of explanation. But there was I believe a very bad intent behind it. And if you want to use the word collusion properly, there was collusion with the Iranian government to designate a freedom organization as a terrorist organization to accommodate and appease the terrorist leadership. That was a mistake. How ironic now that we see the IRGC, who killed 19 Americans in Khobar Towers in June of 1996, and countless other victims, many of whom we heard yesterday, now sitting on that list.
So, I think all of the indicators of change are here. Look at the Iranian economy. Look what the corrupt and terrorist leadership has done to the economy, contracting the GNP by 6%. The Rial has gone down 60%. We will see an amazing change, and I think we will see it quickly.
One of the things I just wanted to say is listening to the testimony yesterday and viewing the room next door, one of the things we have to get ready for, one of the things we have to prepare for, is the prosecution and conviction of the thousands of criminals who have murdered, assassinated, killed, not by accident, not by coincidence, but a designed plan to murder, mass murder a group of people. So, when you talk about the exhibit, I have to be loyal to my own perspective, I don’t see it as an exhibit. I don’t see it as a museum. I see it as an evidence room. And an evidence room that has photographs, digital records, and can you imagine all the evidence, particularly in this day and age, all the evidence that exists that can’t be erased, can’t be deleted, digital evidence, photographic evidence, and most importantly what we heard yesterday, unbelievable heartbreaking testimony. But that’s eyewitness evidence, that’s the most important thing in criminal prosecution. So what I think should happen now, as we prepare for change, one of the most important things that I think everybody in this room can do is apply some of the same skill and detail and meticulousness that you’ve applied to everything you’ve done and start preparing for criminal prosecutions by an international criminal court. Economic sanctions are great. They’re obviously having a big impact. But what will terrify the terrorist more than anything is the prospect that they will be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted under the rule of law, which is something very strange for them.
Watching this amazing construction, but I think of Ashraf 3 as temporary quarters. It’s Ashraf 4 that we want to visit. I would ask all of you who worked here on Ashraf 3, how long would it take you to build a courthouse in Tehran? And you know what, you already have a prison, so we can incarcerate them, and they can be prosecuted as people were prosecuted in Nuremberg, in other places.
The testimony we heard yesterday cries out for criminal prosecutions, convictions, imprisonment, and I think now we have to put that documentation together like the Simon Wiesenthal Center did after World War II. You may be doing that already, but I think that’s a concentrated effort that we should do now. And there will be many people who will help you put that archive together. Thank you, God bless you.
