A growing number of people who have been victims of various abuses by the Mojahedin are joining together to undertake the legal prosecution of Massoud Rajavi. This is to hold him responsible for 'crimes against humanity', which includes torture and which involves hundreds of individuals whilst they were under his jurisdiction.

There are various reasons why someone might wish to pursue their case in the difficult arena of a court of law. The objectives of such people are mainly as follows:

• To have the truth properly established about what is happening in the Mojahedin, and to be proved to have been telling the truth as an individual.
   
• To have their suffering acknowledged as real.

(This is because the suffering has been largely, though not exclusively, due to psychological abuse, and so it can seem that no one takes their suffering seriously because there are no physical scars - it is about the perception of their suffering. This issue is closely linked to the concept of the Mojahedin being a cult. Most former members do not realise that they have been the victims of a cult and so don't have a full appreciation that the methods of psychological manipulation that are used by the Mojahedin are internationally recognised mind control techniques. These techniques are not only damaging in themselves but deprive the individual of their most basic human right, the freedom to think. Useful information can be found about cults on the website www.cultinformation.org.uk or www.freedomofmind.org)

• To stop Massoud Rajavi, as leader of the Mojahedin, from acting with impunity against those who speak out against his policies.

(The Mojahedin while based in Iraq behave as though they are beyond all accountability and the law. This has allowed Massoud Rajavi to act with impunity toward the people under his jurisdiction in Iraq. Former members of the Mojahedin who have suffered abuse want to prevent this from continuing and will challenge Rajavi in court for human rights abuses (crimes against humanity) should he enter Europe or Scandinavia.)

Alongside the concerns of individuals, there are wider issues concerning human rights abuses by the Mojahedin. For example, the organisation has used forced marriages and forced divorces within its total membership. The organisation separated children from their parents under the duress of the 1991 Gulf War and had them fostered by their supporters in the West or in Iran. The organisation would argue that the members willingly accepted these conditions. Indeed, some who didn't were sent to Europe in the early 1990s. But it can be argued equally that techniques of mind control and the psychological manipulation of members deprived them the freedom to choose. It is those who objected most and made the most trouble who have been worst mistreated.

The most troubling accusations which were exposed in the summer of 2002, and which have more or less prompted many former members of the Mojahedin to take legal action, involves dissenting members being sent to Iraqi political prisons and even being returned to Iran, putting their lives in danger. In spite of Saddam Hussein's amnesty to Arab prisoners in the autumn of 2002, no information has been given about these Iranian prisoners who are presumed to be still in prison in Iraq.

A further issue which demands mention is the Mojahedin's propensity to attack all their critics as 'working for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry' (including Baroness Emma Nicholson, MEP and The Sunday Times newspaper). For Iranians who are struggling to expose the human rights violations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, this is a potent threat, and many are silenced by it. Many ex-members are still afraid in their own minds of what the Mojahedin can do to them. One of their worst fears is to be accused of siding with the enemy. The Mojahedin know this and use this accusation against all their critics.

We would urge those involved to consider legal remedy in this respect.

We also take the view that even if people are discovered to be 'working for the regime' (it is possible), that this should not and must not detract from the facts and it is these facts which the victims wish to establish in a court of law.

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