Albania supports MKO by terrorizing, jailing cult’s defectors: Journalist

Albania's police and courts are providing staunch support for the so-called Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), an anti-Iran terrorist cult, according to an Albanian journalist and historian.

The members who want to abandon the notorious outfit are terrorized and jailed in the country, Olsi Jazexhi revealed in a thread of tweets on Saturday.

In his tweets, Jazexhi cited Anila Hoxha, a journalist connected to Albania’s anti-terror police, who said the cult — headed by the terrorist group’s leader Maryam Rajavi — and its affiliates were on a “full offensive against Iranian defectors in Albania.”

“@Maryam_Rajavi & #FreeIran2022 mafia are on a full offensive against Iranian defectors in Albania. Anila Hoxha, a journalist connected to antiterror police announced yesterday that Special Anticorruption Structure Prosecutor blocked the activity of Asila,” Jazexhi wrote.

“Asila is an association of Iranian defectors - members of @Mojahedineng / PMOI foreign fighters who abandon violent jihad and terrorism against Iran and live civilian life. Their defections have caused much crisis within the #MEK paramilitary organization that Albania hosts,” he added.

Jazexhi said “hundreds” of the MKO want to abandon the group but Rajavi uses the Albanian police to “terrorize and intimidate” them.  

“There are dozens or maybe even hundreds of mojaheden slave soldiers in @Maryam_Rajavi_F, @Maryam_Rajavi_P, @Maryam_Rajavi_A cult camp in Albania, who want to abandon the terrorist camp and live civilian life. Rajavi uses Albanian police to terrorize and intimidate the defectors,” the journalist said.

Jazexhi stressed that Asila has been quite successful to provide a window of hope to dozen of Iranians who want to free themselves from the terrorist cult, noting, “To stop the destruction of the cult Rajavi has used all the tricks she can.”

“Since Albania is a nominal democracy and a European country, Maryam Rajavi has not been able to assassinate her defectors. But the trick she is using to eliminate them is lies, fake news, character assassination and using Albanian courts and police to jail the defectors of jihad,” he tweeted.

Mohammad Marandi, professor of International studies at University of Tehran, censured the Albanian government as a “US puppet regime” and said Tirana punishes the MKO’s defectors to preserve the cult's numbers.

“A good thread on how the US puppet regime in #Albania helps the #MeK terrorist organization. Western backed Mek terrorists fought as soldiers for Saddam & also murdered 17,000 Iranians in terror attacks,” Marandi said. “The #Albanian regime punishes defectors to preserve the cult's numbers.”

After it was founded more than 50 years ago, the MKO launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations in Iran. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the group’s acts of terror.

The ill-famed terror group is currently based in Albania, where it enjoys freedom of activity after being delisted by the European Union and the United States in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

Regardless of its disrepute around the world, the MKO has in recent years held numerous big events, attended by senior American, Israeli and Saudi officials, including former US Senator John McCain, former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, former US national security advisor John Bolton, former US Senator Joe Lieberman, and former director of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency Turki bin Faisal Al Saud.

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