By Jubin Katiraie
34-year-old Abdullah Ghasempour was arrested on May 21st, 2018 for setting fire to a Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Basij base, filming the event, and sending it to the MEK media. On Sunday, the notorious judge, Mohammad Moghiseh, sentenced Ghasempour at branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, to death, plus eight years in prison, on charges of “waging war on God”, “assembly and collusion,” and “membership in the MEK.”
Another three men, Mohammad Hossein Ghasempour (Abdullah’s brother), 32, Alireza Habibian, 30, and Akbar Dalir, 34, were sentenced to five and a half years each in prison for “assembly and collusion.” They currently being held in Ward 4 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. They were arrested along with Ghasempour, and are also affiliated with the opposition — The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the coalition which includes the MEK.
In a statement issued on May 17th, 2019, the NCRI announced the names of 11 individuals who were arrested in late April.
The NCRI stated, “The transfer of Hash al-Shabi forces from Iraq to the flood-hit areas, launching night patrols and “neighborhood-based security patrols”, called the Razavioun, and the new wave of arrests throughout the country, especially among the supporters of the MEK, are part of the repressive measures of religious fascism to prevent popular uprisings.”
This statement lines up with Iran’s intelligence official’s announcement that dozens of the PMOI supporters were arrested last year.
As well, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi reported the arrests of 116 teams associated to the MEK in the past year. The Director General of the intelligence in East Azarbaijan Province on April 24, 2019, also gave a figure of 110 arrests and encounters with the Mojahedin in the province in 2018.
The NCRI, however, said that the actual number of arrests is much higher, because the IRGC, the IRGC’s intelligence, law enforcement, and prosecutors, all make their own arrests.
The MEK have announced the names of 29 detainees as follows:
1. Farshad Etemadifar, 24, Gachsaran, June 2018
2. Omid Javid Nasab, 20, Gachsaran, June 2018
3. Farshad, 21, Gachsaran, June 2018
4. Farshid Baharan, 21, Yasouj, Khordad 2018
5. Mehrzad Baharan, 27, Yasouj, June 2018
6. Amir Ramin Fard, 38, Tabriz, June 2018
7. Shahyad Ghanavati, 32, Ahvaz, September 2018
8. Afshin Barzegar Jamshidi, 29, September 2018
9. Majid Mahmoudian, 37, Tabriz, September 2018
10. Mohammad Reza Hasan Maleki, 33, Semnan, October 2018
11. Zarir Hadipour, 56, Kohdasht, October 2018
12. Farhang Khorshidi, 41, Kohdasht, October 2018
13. Alireza Barzegar, 40, Karaj, October 2018
14. Pouriya Vahidian, Tehran, November 2018
15. Manoochehr Farhadi, 50, Isfahan, February 2019
16. Seyyed Mehdi Vafaie, 35, Tehran, February 2019
17. Hossein Noori Derakhshan, 36, Tehran, February 2019
18. Hamid Kashani, Ghaemshahr, February 2019
19. Vahid Bani Ameriyan, 26, Tehran, March 2019
20. Pooya Ghobadi, 26, Tehran, March 2019
21. Sina Zahiri, 36, Tehran, March 2019
22. Mohsen Farid, 44, Tehran, March 2019
23. And 24. Parsa Sedighi Hamedani, 22, with her sister, Urmia, March 2019
24. Ebrahim Khalil Sedighi Hamedani, Urmia, 60, March 2019
25. Afshin Shahsavari, 27, Tehran, March 2019
26. Abbas Shahbazi, 41, Ahvaz, March 2019
27. Najah Anvar Hamidi, 60, Ahvaz, March 2019
