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Monday, 19 December 2005 |
 From "People's Mojahedin of Iran", compiled by Andre Brie and
Paulo Casaca assisted by Azadeh Zabeti on behalf of the Friends of a
Free Iran - European Parliament
One of HRW’s testimonies is from Mohammad Hussein Sobhani. HRW
allege that he spent “…eight-and-a-half years in solitary confinement
inside the MKO’s main camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, from September 1992 to
January 2001.”
The FOFI delegation was thus keen to interview Afsaneh Taherian
(Sobhani’s ex-wife) in order to evaluate the serious allegations of
abuse from this key HRW witness. FOFI also spoke to PMOI officials in
Camp Ashraf, to get their response to his allegations as well as
randomly questioning members of the PMOI.
Further broader research was
conducted on the internet and other available independent sources by
FOFI, in order that it could be in a better position to make an
informed and accurate assessment of the allegations.
Afsaneh Taherian was 21 years old when she married Mohammad Hussein
Sobhani in 1983. She maintains that knowing of her support for the
PMOI, Sobhani convinced her to marry him, she believed, unifying them
as a couple by their joint ideals.
Afsaneh Taherian was moved to tears as she told the FOFI delegation how
the foundations of their relationship were based on untruths and
inflated exaggerations. She said,
“Even from a family perspective I took the biggest blow. Our
relationship was based on lies. You can imagine what kind of a person
he is.”
When quizzed to relate her objections to his allegations, Afsaneh Taherian said,
“He claims he was in contact [with the PMOI] since 1977 and a member
since 1979, which is a lie. In 1983 when we got married he introduced
himself as an aeroplane engineer and a supporter of the PMOI… he wanted
to convince me to marry him, as he knew I was a supporter and wanted to
join the movement. His claim that he was from the resistance and was
well connected is a lie. Later I found out he lied about his
profession. He was not an aeroplane engineer but in the Ministry of
Defence working as a helicopter maintenance man… I found out he was
lying from the beginning of our relationship.”
The delegation’s interview with Afsaneh Taherian raised many questions
about Sobhani’s testimony. Ms Taherian said whilst in Ashraf, Sobhani
remained in constant communication with his brother Jafar, who she
later found out, was working for the repressive, disciplinary organs of
the regime, or moral police, as they are otherwise known. “It was
after these communications that PMOI suspected him and he realised he
was on suspicion…” Taherian told the delegation that as a result of
these communications Sobhani aroused the suspicion of the
Anti-Terrorism and Counter Intelligence Committee of the NLA who in
their investigations into a failed assassination attempt against
Massoud Rajavi found information was being leaked through Jafar
Sobhani. The “assassination attempt was as a direct result of the
communication that he had with his brother Jafar.” When confronted
with this, and having been asked to leave, he refused to do so, asking
instead to stay but with the removal of his duties and responsibilities.
The directorate of the Counter Intelligence of the NLA reported,
“Mohammad Hossein Sobhani, was a member of the mullahs’ army who was
assigned in February 1983 to infiltrate into the Mojahedin in Kurdistan
and then reach the Mojahedin from Kurdistan. He was first deployed in
logistical bases and from February 1990 to autumn 1991 was a member of
protection team for transportation… But due to a suspicion on his
state, he never managed to gain the trust of his colleagues… which led
to taking his rifle from him. In the regime’s conspiracy to
assassinate the leader of the resistance in 1992, his suspicious links
and false records and treacherous service to the Intelligence Ministry
was unveiled … on pursuing investigations, the Mojahedin found out more
about the role of information given by the traitor defectors and
infiltrators and the suspicious links between Mohammad Hossein Sobhani
and his brother, Ja’afar Sobhani in ‘educational affairs’ and another
Revolutionary Guard, in Evin prison.”
It would appear that upon being expelled from the PMOI because of his
links to MOIS and upon Sobhani’s own insistence that he be allowed to
stay, Sobhani was permitted to remain in the base. Mr Lars Rise, who
visited Camp Ashraf in June 2005 to conduct his own personal
investigations wrote,
“The only issue that is true in his remarks is that he had been
relieved of his responsibilities because his contacts with the Iranian
Intelligence Ministry had been revealed. Subsequently, upon his own
request, he lived in an apartment furnished with all living commodities
of a comfortable life. Despite PMOI’s insistence that he must leave
the organization, he was not willing to do so and insisted that so long
as Afsaneh Taherian did not change her views to leave the organization
with him, he would stay in that place.”
Sobhani’s separation upon his own request appears to be the basis for
his solitary confinement allegations. According to Taherian, during
this period of separation, Sobhani persistently exerted pressure on her
to leave the organisation. She notes,
“…he put pressure on PMOI to take me as well. I met him a few times
while he falsely claims to be in solitary confinement. Because he
wanted to leave the organisation the PMOI asked me to speak with him in
order to come to a resolution and conclusion as to what he wanted to
do… he told me that he wants to take me with him. I said I am not
going with you… I put the divorce proposal in front of him and he did
not accept, but after a few sessions he accepted… He claimed in HRW
that he was in solitary confinement. I saw him with my own eyes. The
few times that I saw him, he had just returned from jogging.”
This meeting was apparently held on 10 June 1997. “My last meeting
with him was on 22 April 1998, after which I refused to see him
again... As Sobhani has acknowledged, he was absolutely free to leave
Mojahedin in Iraq and go to Iran. But he wanted PMOI to illegally send
him to Europe and to take me with him”
Confused by his insistence on taking his ex-wife, the delegation asked
Taherian why she thought Sobhani had been so adamant that they leave
together and why he insisted to go to Europe and not Iran. She replied,
“The reason for his staying was to take me and to go to Europe and the
reason was to white wash his connection with the Iranian regime and to
pursue his mission on behalf of the Intelligence Ministry in a
different capacity.”
Sobhani told HRW that he spent eight and a half years in solitary
confinement in Camp Ashraf. However, PMOI officials that FOFI spoke to
said the fact that he had lived in Camp Parsian, very close to Baghdad
for a long period, clearly showed his claim to have been in “solitary
confinement in Ashraf” to be false. They also stated that Mohammad
Hossein Sobhani had himself acknowledged having lived in Camp Parsian,
confirming that his statement to HRW was false. Other members of the
PMOI also confirm to have seen him in Parsian at the time that he
claims to have been in solitary confinement. In his letter published
in the Mojahed weekly publication, he also acknowledged that he
regularly travelled to Baghdad, something confirmed by Afsaneh Taherian.
When asked about his rank in the organisation, Taherian said Sobhani
had different roles “he was security in front of the gate of Ashraf and
before he said he wanted to leave, he was the security to and from
Baghdad.” This is in stark contrast to his saying he was “a member of
the Central Committee.”
Having read Sobhani’s testimony, “I used to mark my prison walls each
time I was subjected to severe beatings” and “there were many occasions
of lesser beatings… on eleven occasions I was beaten mercilessly using
wooden sticks and thick leather belts” , HRW’s commentary then moves on
to his being handed over to Iraqi officials where he spent one year in
jail before being “repatriated to Iran in exchange for Iraqi POW’s.”
This raises several questions. If Sobhani was truly repeatedly beaten
mercilessly using wooden sticks and thick leather belts, and also spent
over eight years in solitary confinement, this could easily have been
proved through a medical examination of Sobhani. This therefore raises
a serious question as to why HRW did not commission such a medical
examination, instead merely relying on testimony over the telephone.
Further, if Sobhani was indeed a high-ranking member of the PMOI (as he
alleges), so important an individual that he had endured eight and a
half years in solitary confinement, it is unrealistic to imagine he
would simply be handed over to Iraqi officials. Furthermore, if it is
accepted that he was a high-ranking committee member who was released
to the Iraqis and later returned to Iran, this arouses the question of
how he was able to leave Iran for Europe with such ease, in three days
in fact.
As Mr Lars Rise notes,
“…we all know that such a quick departure is only possible when the Iranian government, itself, is involved.”
In the course of research undertaken into Mohammad Hussein Sobhani’s
background, the FOFI delegation came across a document revealed by the
PMOI that Sobhani was a veteran Iranian Intelligence agent. In its
weekly, the PMOI published,
“an internal VEVAK report dated February 20, 2002, Ramin Darami, a
member of the Sobhani ring, wrote to Haj Saeed, his new handler, ‘After
we entered Iran through legal channels [from Iraq], we were sent to
Marmar Hotel in Tehran and were given a high-level reception. While we
were in Marmar Hotel, the head of our team was brother Mohammad Hossein
Sobhani and others in our group were Ali Qashqavi and Taleb Jalilian.
Our brothers from the Ministry of Intelligence [VEVAK] paid us daily
visits and resolved all our problems, and during this period I spoke to
Haj Mahmoud… My stay in the hotel lasted ten days… During the period we
stayed in Marmar Hotel, your proposed plans were reviewed several times
by brother Mohammad Hossein Sobhani within our team and we were briefed
on it.”
So how did Sobhani manage to leave Iran in such a remarkably short
space of time? In an interview with Mahdis, described as “a
Persian-language website that acts as a front for VEVAK” , Sobhani says
he escaped from a vehicle managing to get away as a result of a shoot
out. This is an altogether different escape story than the one given
to HRW. Sobhani appears to have had a lapse in memory, telling Mahdis
that he escaped form a vehicle in a shoot out and three years later
telling HRW he left a low-security prison.
This is a remarkable inconsistency, which must raise serious doubts as
to Sobhani’s credibility and therefore his entire testimony to HRW. |
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