The United Kingdom branch of Jubilee Campaign issued a response to a 28-page document by HRW which accused the Iranian Mojahedin of torturing its dissident members who criticised or sought to leave the organisation, stating, The stories by supposed ‘former members’ of the PMOI interviewed by HRW contained nothing new and are highly likely to be fabrications.
Jubilee Campaign said that the report was part of the usual strategy of the Iranian government’s intelligence services to attempt to tarnish the image of its main opposition, the PMOI, by spreading such disinformation and unsubstantiated allegations against that organisation, adding, It is likely that the Iranian regime is especially keen at the present time to try and discredit the PMOI as extensive efforts are being made by Iranian communities around the world to have the unjust terror tag removed from their resistance movement.
Jubilee Campaign said that it was very disturbed that Human Rights Watch had provided a platform for unsubstantiated allegations against the PMOI to be spread, stating that thorough corroboration of the allegations should have been sought before they were published and HRW should have given the accused organisation an opportunity to respond to the very serious allegations made against it, before publishing such claims.
We urge HRW to withdraw its report on the PMOI. Rather than focusing on unsubstantiated allegations against the PMOI, we hope that HRW will concentrate its efforts on exposing the real human rights abuses by the mullahs in Tehran, the rights organisation said.