Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeIran News NowIran Opposition & ResistanceEdalat Association:A front organization for the mullahs' Ministry of Intelligence -Part one

Edalat Association:A front organization for the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence -Part one

mullahs_ministry_of_intelligence_and_securityBy Reza Shafa

Background:

The Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has an office called the Elteqat Office, which is tasked with confronting the activities of and campaigning against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). In October 2005, during the tenure of Mohseni Ejei, the Elteqat created a legal section to confront the PMOI. The public face of this legal section was a so-called NGO entitled Habilian. Its members are claimed to be the children of those who the regime alleges were killed during the 1980’s confrontations with the PMOI. In reality, Habilian is the “Office of Legal Mobilization against the PMOI at the MOIS.”

In June 2007, in order to prevent the removal of the PMOI from the terrorist lists as well as to hamper the PMOI’s activities, the MOIS formed a sub-section in the Habilian using some of its members, which it named “Edalat Association.” Deeply frightened by the prospect of removal of the PMOI from the terror lists in Europe and the US, and especially after this actually took place in June 2008 by the UK government at the order of the UK High Court, the mullahs’ MOIS increased and elevated its demonizing campaign against the PMOI.

The Edalat Association, as the MOIS’s extraterritorial arm, is the Ministry’s main tool for the legal and political campaign against the PMOI.

Edalat Association’s Address:

Edalat Association’s office is located in the city of Tehran, on the fifth floor of a building in front of Saee Park. (In November 2007, when the MOIS wanted to meet with members of the British Parliament under the guise of this so-called NGO, it set up this office in Tehran and conducted the meetings there).

Members of Edalat Association:

1. Director: Zahra Sobhani
2. Secretary and Spokesperson: Esmat Sepehri,
3. Alireza Dastbaz
4. Hassan Sepehri, Esmat Sepehri’s brother
5. Iraj Moradi, Haj Ebrahim Moradi’s son, who claims to have been a blacksmith killed in the 1980s
6. Marzieh Elham Moallem, a 47 year old, who is physically disabled
7. Alimi, a prisoner of war during the Iran-Iraq war; In the course of the meetings with human rights officials in Geneva, he claimed that as a POW in Iraq, he has witnessed that the PMOI physically and mentally tortured the prisoners.

Officials and contact persons of the MOIS Edalat Association
• Zahra Sobhani, the Director of the Edalat Association, has said: “The Edalat Association works with the Association of Victims of Terrorism [Habilian] and is in contact with Javad Hashemi-Nejad [the Director of Habilian and a high-ranking MOIS official].”
• Before being released to the media, all of the documents from the Edalat Association are edited by Haj Mohseni, who is in charge of public and media relations at MOIS.

The Aims of Edalat Association according to its Officials

With regards to the aims of this association, Zahra Sobhani, its Director, has said:

• “The Edalat Association works to expose the PMOI. Our activities are not political and are merely directed against terrorism.”
• “Another goal of this association is to primarily inform European countries about the PMOI, since after the Iraq War and now that Ashraf is disarmed, the PMOI is looking to establish a base in Europe. Therefore, we must do something so that European governments refrain from accepting the PMOI. This means that we have to counter the PMOI’s efforts to remove itself from the European terrorist list, and work to maintain it on the list. In this context, we must demonstrate to Europe that the PMOI is also dangerous for the European community.”
• “The Edalat Association seeks to meet with European foreign ministry officials and UN-affiliated institutions and organizations and campaign against the PMOI.”

—-
Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime's Intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) also known as VEVAK, Intelligence Office of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Qods Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.