Conflicting Reports Surround Raid Into Iranian Exiled Group’s Camp

A collective of Iranian republican opposition groups has called for a probe into the Albanian police raid on Mojahedin-e-Khalq's exile center, Camp Ashraf. 

The statement from the Union for Secular Republic and Human Rights in Iran, demanded that Western countries not ignore the standards of human rights in their dealings with the Islamic Republic. 

The statement came two days after opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) said hundreds of Albanian police officers raided their compound known as Ashraf-3, near Manze, a small hill town some 30km west of Albania’s capital Tirana. 

The opposition coalition expressed concerns about the possible cooperation of European countries with the Islamic Republic in exchange for concessions from the regime, saying that the attack on the MEK’s township is in line with Iran’s intensified efforts to stifle voices of dissent inside the country and abroad.

The group said this trend is proven by the prisoner swap between Iran and Belgium that led to the release of Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism Assadollah Assadi in exchange for four European nationals held hostage by the regime. 

“The free world cannot contribute to the spread of democracy in the world by ignoring the freedoms and rights of citizens within its own territory, even on the pretext of security concerns,” the group's statement urged, seeking the formation of a fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. 

Reports about the circumstances of the incident at Camp Ashraf are full of conflicting recounts with the Albanian authorities blaming the MEK members for the clashes and the MEK accusing Albania of giving in to the whims of the Islamic Republic. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanani said on Wednesday that the cult – as the regime calls the MEK -- is and will be a danger for its host country “due to its terrorist nature.” 

The regime alleges that since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, the group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian officials and civilians, killing some 17,000 people.

Also on Wednesday, Iran's vice president for legal affairs, Mohammad Dehghan, said legal measures are underway in coordination with the ministries of intelligence and foreign affairs as well as the judiciary to return “the hypocrites” to Iran. Iranian officials always refer to the exiled MEK with an Arabic term (munafiqin) that means 'hypocrites.'

“We must issue sentences for people who committed crimes against people or state property inside the country and enforce these verdicts abroad," he said.

Albania says the police were following a lead as part of an investigation over cyberattacks against the Albanian government, but the residents of the camp resisted the forces, and scuffles broke out.

The group said on Tuesday that one of their members, identified as Ali Mostashari, was killed and more than a hundred others injured, with some hospitalized in critical condition after police raided the camp using tear gas and pepper spray.

Albanian Interior Minister Bledi Cuci and the head of the national police, Muhamet Rrumbullaku, said 36 people – 15 police officers and 21 MEK members -- were injured during the raid, emphasizing that the death was not caused by any police action. Police denied any wrongdoing.

Albanian prosecutors have also charged six members of the MEK following the clashes for offenses related to the violation and destruction of police vehicles, disobeying police and court orders, as well as assault and battery of on-duty police officers. In a statement released on Thursday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed that these six people – without identifying them – were the ones cooperating with the police and were trying to calm the situation. 

Evidence revealed the MEK was informed beforehand about the police check, as was claimed by the Albanian authorities. However, according to the statement, the police showed up at the camp with 150 cars and over 1,200 forces. It added that after entering the camp, the police stationed machine guns on top of the buildings. 

In a joint conference after the raid, Cuci and Rrumbullaku said that about 100 computers were seized during their searches as well as documents which, at the time of the operation, the MEK members tried to burn. The police released drone footage of MEK members moving big black bags of what they say were documents to an outdoor fireplace and trying to burn them. 

Confirming some of the accounts in the NCRI statement, they said that they had a meeting with the six main leaders of the camp and were promised full cooperation. However, they said the resistance began after about two hours of search when the police found out about the MEK members' efforts not to declare server rooms and computer equipment in almost 17 facilities. 

Following the incident, the US State Department released a statement, saying that it has been "assured" the Albanian government did not violate any human rights. Raising concerns about the group’s actions against its own members, including allegations of abuse, the statement emphasized that Washington does not view the MEK as “a viable democratic opposition movement that is representative of the Iranian people.”

In September 2022, Albania severed its relations with the Islamic Republic and expelled all Iranian diplomats and embassy staff following an investigation into a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the country’s infrastructure in July. The attack happened around the time of a conference held by the MEK.

The Tuesday attack against the de facto headquarters of the MEK took place about a month after the MEK-affiliated hacktivist group Uprising till Overthrow breached into 120 servers of the Iranian presidential office, getting access to internal communications, meetings minutes, and leaking troves of confidential data.