MEK Leaders May Be Extradited to Iran, Judiciary Official Says

Iran’s judiciary says it intends to ask the Interpol to repatriate the leaders of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) in other countries to Iran.

Amin Vaziri, the representative of the prosecutor in Iran's ongoing trial of MEK members, said Thursday that the Judiciary examined all international treaties and conventions as well as the internal laws of the countries where anti-terrorism laws exist to decide in which countries members of the group can be considered as terrorists.

Over 100 members of the group have been on trial in Tehran since December 12, 2023.

Vaziri added that the prosecution hopes the final verdict will be a “strong judicial document” based on Iranian and international laws to prove that MEK is a “terrorist” group in order to request the Interpol to arrest and repatriate the defendants.

MEK, a revolutionary organization with a leftist-Islamist ideology, emerged before the Iranian revolution in 1979 and for a time supported the new Islamist government in Tehran.

Soon after the revolution, however, the group was outlawed and many of its members fled to Iraq under Saddam Hussein who helped them continue their fight against the government in Tehran.

Since 2013, some 2,500 of the MEK members have been sheltered in Albania, where they are not allowed to engage in any political activity and must abide by the country’s laws.