Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, October 19, 2020—The Albanian government ordered the arrest and expulsion of another Iranian regime spy on Saturday, according to several Albanian outlets. The Interior Ministry of Albania designated of Ehsan Bidi, a known agent of the Iranian regime, as persona non grata and ordered his expulsion from Albanian soil on October 17. Bidi was subsequently arrested and transferred to a detention center, where he will remain until another country accepts him. Bidi is accused of spying on members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Albania on behalf Tehran.
After Bidi was transferred to the detention center, the Iranian regime resorted to lies against MEK members in Albania to cover the scandal and allay the fears of other Tehran agents in Albania. Bidi and other regime agents, along websites run by Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), claimed that the MEK had tried to kill him and therefore the Albanian government had transferred him to a safe location.
Massoud Khodabandeh, a known regime agent and the director of the MOIS-run Interlink website wrote on his Facebook page: “According to Albanian police, agents of the MEK who have infiltrated the circle of former members of the organization were planning to kill Ehsan Bidi. While the police are investigating to the MEK insider, Mr. Bidi was transferred to a safe location.”
Bidi parroted Khodabandeh’s remarks and claimed:
“According to Albanian police, the MEK is conspiring to kill me. The police have transferred me to a safe location to protect me and say they are searching for an (MEK) infiltrator among former members of the organization who was ordered by [the MEK] to kill me. I will be here until they find the MEK assassin.”
Ehsan Bidi and Massoud Khodabandeh spread lies on their Facebook pages.
To the regime’s dismay, the next day, Albanian media officially issued the order for the expulsion of Bidi from Albanian soil because of his criminal collusion with the regime and his activities against MEK members in Albania.
Bidi’s ties with the Iranian regime and the MOIS are well documented. He surrendered himself to the Iranian regime’s Iraqi operatives in 2012, while he was with MEK members in Camp Liberty, Iraq. After he left the MEK, he went to Hotel Mohajer, a facility controlled by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force in Baghdad. The regime used its influence on the UNHCR to send Bidi to Albania as a refugee, where he would be used as an operative to spy on MEK members that were gradually being transferred to the country.
The Anti-terrorism Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) first exposed Bidi’s cooperation with the regime in a statement on December 2, 2013.
In 2019, he was arrested by Albanian authorities for crimes he had committed and was kept in a camp for a year. In July 2020, he was given the opportunity to voluntarily leave Albanian soil, but was stopped by authorities in neighboring Greece and was forced to return to Tirana.
The news comes against the backdrop of increased activities by the Iranian regime against MEK members in Albania.
Earlier this month, Tirana arrested Bijan Pooldarag, an Iranian regime agent who was trying to spy on MEK members in Ashraf 3, the Iranian opposition’s compound near Tirana. Pooldarag is charged with “illegal interception of computer data,” “interference in computer systems,” “interference in computer data,” and “misuse of equipment.”
Earlier this year, Albanian authorities expelled another regime agent, Danial Kasraei, who had entered the country posing as a journalist. Kasraei had close ties to Bidi.
Gholamreza Shekari, another one of Bidi’s associates in Albania, is currently in prison for the crimes he has committed.
Parallel to these efforts, the regime is engaged in widespread propaganda efforts and terrorist attempts against Ashraf 3 and MEK members in Albania. So far, Albanian authorities have expelled several Iranian diplomats and arrested crime rings who were plotting against the MEK.
Following the news regarding Bidi’s arrested, the NCRI in a statement reiterated the need to arrest and expulsion of all regime agents in foreign countries.
