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Thursday, 22 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
Another of HRW’s telephone testimonies is from the 25 year old Yasser
Ezati. Ezati claims, “after the first six months in Iraq, I
realized I had no desire to stay”. Since he claims to have gone
to Iraq in June 1997 and left in June 2004 it would appear that Ezati
had for 7 years wanted to leave the PMOI, but “…was repeatedly told the
only way out was to go to Iran. I was too afraid to go to Iran.”
According to Ezati’s own testimony, he endured the organisation for
seven years, but chose not to leave, as his only option was to leave
for Iran. However, according to his father, Hassan Ezati, who is
named directly in the HRW report, Yasser having left Camp Ashraf went
directly to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad. The delegation found
this difficult to understand. After all, Yasser upon his own
admission had lived in Canada & Germany. Therefore, why would
an individual who was not familiar with Iran choose to go to the
Iranian Embassy, especially considering how fearful he stated he was of
the consequences of this action?
Hassan Ezati said, “…he always wanted to go to Baghdad to see the
German consulate… He was given $400 and 100,000 Iraqi Dinars. He
even says he was given this money”. The delegation was able
to examine signed letters by Yasser Ezati in this regard. Hassan
Ezati said a few days after, “the driver who did not know he [Yasser]
was my son surprisingly said ‘I took a guy a few days ago from here but
he was looking for the Iranian Embassy’” Hassan Ezati did not
believe the Iraqi taxi driver, until he heard from his brother and
parents in Iran that Yasser had been to Iran and had then left for
Germany. Upon information that he received from his brother,
Hassan Ezati found out that Yasser had gone to Baghdad to the Iranian
Embassy for two days before spending three days at the MOIS office in
Ilam and then the Laleh hotel in Tehran.
Hassan Ezati says in order to save the face of the family, his brother
had tried to persuade Yasser not to leave with the MOIS agents.
However, when MOIS became aware of the family’s interference in trying
to dissuade Yasser from the path he was about to take, Hassan Ezati’s
family were “threatened with trouble. Two days after that, Yasser
left. A person who did not know Iran and had no money and no
passport, how did he end up in Germany with Sobhani? From the first day
that he arrived in Germany he started to say these things.”
Hassan Ezati was interviewed in relation to his son’s testimony.
He described how Yasser had first shown an interest in travelling to
Iraq,
“He was in Germany and requested to come. Initially I said you
should test to see if you can stay. Struggle is not an easy
thing. He said ‘I want to take revenge for my mother and my
uncles’. He had some childish tendencies but nothing that would
explain this”.
However, Hassan Ezati went on,
“In December 2003, he came to me and said ‘I am tired and would like to
leave. He said I don’t have a passport, what should I do? I said
go to the US [coalition forces in Camp Ashraf], as we had no means of
taking people abroad. A few times they met him and he said I want
to stay with the PMOI to see what will happen. In this process,
the US called upon him a few times and insisted that he stay with them…
A Norwegian attorney, Mr Mathiassen came to see his residence and spoke
to him in private and saw his place of residence. He had a
satellite receiver and 2 TV’s… He was screened [by Coalition forces] 7
times… and if any of those claims had any basis he should have raised
them with the coalition. They are false and unfounded.”
Jørgen Wille Mathiassen, a Norwegian attorney, having visited Camp Ashraf in March 2004 wrote in a letter to HRW,
“While we were there we neither saw any prison or even signs of prison,
nor have we heard about prisons or mistreatment of the members.
We did however see the exit facilities and spoke to the only resident
there, Yasser Ezati. Recognizing him as being one of the former
PMOI members giving testimony in your report, I find it necessary to
point out that I also had the opportunity to speak to him in
private. As stated in your report Ezati wanted to leave the
organisation. The American forces that controlled camp Ashraf
would however not let any former PMOI members leave the camp until
various government agencies had screened all of the PMOI members.
Those members who wanted to leave the camp could do so, but only to
stay with the American forces till the screening was finished.
Ezati told my colleague and I that he preferred to stay in PMOI’s exit
facilities rather than to stay with the American forces that controlled
the camp… The exit facilities them selves were clean and reasonably
well kept. We saw no armed guards and no fences.”
The PMOI officials in Camp Ashraf provided FOFI with several letters
written by Yasser Ezati in which he clearly states he wants to stay
with the PMOI as a guest. He made the same comment when he was
interviewed by US agencies.
In the Report, HRW stated,
“A number of witnesses who were detained and tortured inside the MKO
camps named Hassan Ezati as one of their interrogators. Hassan
Ezati’s son, Yasser Ezati, also interviewed for this report, confirmed
his father’s identity as a MKO interrogator.”
When asked to comment on this allegation, Hassan Ezati said if true,
“why didn’t he [Yasser] go to the Americans about this… Before Germany
he didn’t know this? He realised this when he got to Germany?”
Asked about his role in the PMOI, he replied,
“I am now in the section responsible for new arrivals and guests.
I was responsible for 7/8 years for the purchasing department and they
all know me in Baghdad. Imprisonment and torture are done by the
regime. The Americans searched for these issues and found
nothing. They are all old allegations that are unfounded… It is
not a matter of escaping, as anyone can leave, the Americans are
there.”
Hassan Ezati said of his son’s testimony,
“These are the [Iranian] regime’s words. They want to discredit
the PMOI. It is despicable to make a son speak out against his
father. My family are constantly under pressure… They are making
an insult to my integrity and my family. They are disputing 27
years of my life.”
Hassan Ezati explained that, “Anyone who turns up to the gate of Ashraf is welcome.”
According to HRW, Yasser Ezati escaped from Camp Ashraf in June
2004. This statement is misleading, as it implies that he had
escaped from the PMOI, while there is convincing evidence that Yasser
Ezati wanted to stay with the PMOI in Camp Ashraf of his own
will. Indeed, after he declared he wished to leave the
organisation, he actually requested to be allowed to stay in Camp
Ashraf.
In a July 2005 interview, Yasser Ezati acknowledges that he could leave
the organisation and go to the Americans, but he chose not to do so.
“When I was in Ashraf I knew that Americans don’t help anyone. So
I believed that escaping from Ashraf is easier. I didn’t go to
the US camp and I pretended that I wanted to stay with the MKO”.
Of his interview with Hassan Ezati, Lars Rise wrote,
“Yasser’s father, who is introduced in your report by Yasser as an
interrogator, impressed me very much. While he could not hide his
paternal love and emotions for his child, he was very upset about the
fact that the Ministry of Intelligence had employed him ruthlessly
against his parents and family. He could not conceal his feelings
about HRW taking sides with the Intelligence Ministry against him and
his family. Hassan Ezati said U.S. officers from various agencies
including the FBI, the State Department, etc. had met and held private
interviews with Yasser a number of times and he had never wanted to
leave Ashraf and go to the U.S. exit facility. Neither did he
mention a word of these allegations in these interviews. At the
same time, a Norwegian lawyer by the name of Mathiassen has already
written to the Human Rights Watch. In this letter, he mentions
that he had private talks with Yasser Ezati and he visited his place of
residence at Camp Ashraf which was in satisfactory condition.
Such conditions are tremendously different from the circumstances of
incarceration and torture.” |
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