By Iran Probe staff
Friday, 31 March 2017
The MOIS ridiculously attempts to introduce Habilian as an independent NGO. However, it has failed completely due to its completely inhumane positions and blind opposition to the PMOI/MEK.
The UK Court of Appeal in March 2008 ruled in favor of the PMOI/MEK, and both Houses of Lords and Commons in June 2008 obligated the government to delist the PMOI/MEK from the slate of banned organizations in the UK. In response, Iran desperately dispatched Hashemi-nezhad to London as part of a campaign to reinstall the ban on the PMOI/MEK. One of the individuals meeting with Hashemi-nezhad was Lord Avebury, the late chair of the British Parliament’s Human Rights Group. Hashemi-nezhad went on to publish remarks against the PMOI/MEK by quoting Avebury, whereas the Lord was one of the strongest supporters of the PMOI’s rights.
In response Lord Avebury published the following piece to unveil the nature of Habilian and Hashemi-nezhad in his website, confirming this entity’s links to the Iranian regime:
There is a misleading account of my recent meeting with the Secretary-General of Habilian on their website. I met Mr Javad Hashemi-nejad, because it is my general policy to discuss issues with people from authoritarian regimes. He gave me no idea that he was intending to distort what I said for propaganda purposes, though my long experience of the Iranian government and their agents such as Interlink is that this is their usual practice.
Mr Hashemi-Nejad told me that the People’s Mojahedin of Iran was engaged in terrorist crimes and I asked him to let me have the evidence. I told him that the English courts, as well as the European Court of Justice, had found there was no evidence that the PMOI had committed any such offences. The PMOI had not done anything to justify their designation as a terrorist organisation under English law, and accordingly they had been removed from the list of organisations proscribed by the Terrorism Act.Mr Hashemi-nejad said he would provide me with evidence, but has not done so. The documents he gave me at our meeting attacked the PMOI in general terms only, and were not evidence.
Mr Hashemi-Nejad told me that the People’s Mojahedin of Iran was engaged in terrorist crimes and I asked him to let me have the evidence. I told him that the English courts, as well as the European Court of Justice, had found there was no evidence that the PMOI had committed any such offences. The PMOI had not done anything to justify their designation as a terrorist organisation under English law, and accordingly they had been removed from the list of organisations proscribed by the Terrorism Act.Mr Hashemi-nejad said he would provide me with evidence, but has not done so. The documents he gave me at our meeting attacked the PMOI in general terms only, and were not evidence.
The British Parliament Friends of a Free Committee, consisting of dozens of MPs, issued a report titled, “Spying for the Mullahs: Iran’s Agents in UK,” unveiling Iran’s front organizations in the UK. This investigative report introduces Habilian as an Iranian front company involved in publishing lies about the PMOI/MEK.
