By Jubin Katiraie
The Director-General of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in East Azerbaijan Province announced 60 activists of the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin (MEK) have been arrested in the past year, according to the Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
On 24 April 2019, Qodrat Diyalameh said: “In 2018, the activities of the MEK in the province became more widespread, and for the year 2019, they have missions such as gathering and collecting information on the agenda. Last year, the Mojahedin (MEK) expanded their activities by exploiting the economic and social conditions, and 60 elements associated with the MEK communication hubs were arrested and 50 more were ‘cautioned’”.
On April 19, 2019, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi announced the arrest of 116 teams affiliated with the MEK over the past year.
The MEK, also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI) responded by saying the number of dissidents arrested by the regime in the past year were far more than the figure announced by Alavi. The MEK demanded that the regime declare the names and characteristics of all of the detainees and give them their rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants.
In another development, the Iranian authorities in recent weeks have arrested a large number of young people in Khuzestan Province, especially ethnic Arabs, to prevent the emergence and expansion of anti-government protests in the wake of the devastating flood in the province, the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on Thursday.
Opposition leader Maryam Rajavi called once again for the immediate action of the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and international human rights organisations to gain the release of the arrested and to appoint delegations to visit the regime’s prisons and meet with political prisoners.
