Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, May 25, 2020—In the past few weeks the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS) and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have been summoning and arresting a large number of active and rebellious youths, especially supporters of the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Relatives of PMOI members are also among those being targeted in this latest wave of nationwide crackdown. Many individuals have been sent to prison and some have been temporarily released after being threatened, paying bail and providing written obligations. This further indicates the regime’s utter fear of a new uprising sweeping the country and specific concerns regarding the MEK network of “Resistance Units” throughout Iran.
These arrests have been taking place in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Neyshabur, Kermanshah, Sabzevar, Arak, Kashan, Mahshahr, Bushehr, Marvdasht, Amol, Ahvaz, Andimeshk, Rasht, Kashan, Behbahan, Isfahan, Gorgan, Karaj, Tabriz and Shiraz. This drive is parallel to a misinformation and smearing campaign by the MOIS inside the country and their operatives abroad against the Iranian opposition MEK.
Large IRGC units and many MOIS agents, along with plainclothes agents, have been raiding people’s homes and offices during these arrests, many taken away while being severely beaten. The regime’s agents have confiscated the arrestees’ phones, computers, personal items and valuable goods.
Those arrested have been placed under hours of interrogation, tortured, and faced with physical and psychological pressures. Eyewitnesses who have managed to escape say the regime’s authorities seek to obtain information about the activities of MEK members and Resistance Units inside Iran; obtaining knowledge about any possible connection between those arrested and the MEK and this organization’s supporters; and how and why the MEK is able to recruit youths.
In Mashhad, northeast Iran, interrogators even carried out mock executions to break the will of a group of ten young arrestees, link them to the MEK and obtain coerced confessions.
In Tehran, interrogators and torturers specifically implemented psychological torture on young girls and women in order to break their resistance and force them into confessions during TV interviews. Eyewitnesses are saying those arrested have shown courageous resistance.
In parallel measures, the MOIS has made numerous phone calls and sent many threatening messages to create a climate of fear aiming to prevent any connections between Iran’s younger generation and the MEK.
Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, and international human rights organizations, to send international delegations to visit the Iranian regime’s prisons, meet with political prisoners and those recently arrested, and especially the women.
A new wave of arrests of youths, families & supporters of the PMOI/MEK has been launched in Iran. I call on the UNSG & Human Rights Council to dispatch international missions to #Iran to visit political prisoners & recent arrestees, particularly the womenhttps://t.co/YOeaeiguWd
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) May 25, 2020
