The 33rd session of the trial of 104 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and its legal entity was held on Tuesday, May 12, in Branch 11 of the Tehran Province Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Hojjatoleslam Amirreza Dehghani. In this session, attended by the prosecutor's representative, families of the martyrs, their lawyers, and the defendants' lawyers, the main charge was identified as "terrorist acts."
At the beginning of the session, Judge Dehghani emphasized the fundamental difference between victims of terrorism and other crimes, listing "absolute innocence" and the "element of surprise" as the most prominent characteristics of these victims. He added, "The fear of the incident repeating stays with the victims of terrorism for life." Referring to international laws, including UN and EU conventions, he emphasized the prohibition of hosting and granting asylum to terrorist suspects and called on the international community to prioritize the interpretation of laws in favor of terrorism victims. Addressing host countries like France, the judge said, "According to Article 11 of the Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, terrorist crimes are excluded from the category of political crimes."
Subsequently, the plaintiffs' lawyers detailed the charges, including several cases of hijacking, assassination, bombing, and kidnapping. Hojjatoleslam Masoud Maddah, citing the MEK's internal publications, claimed that the hijacking of a Boeing 747 on the Shiraz-Tehran route and a Boeing 727 on the Tehran-Vienna route were carried out by members of this organization on the orders of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi. He also raised the charge of "kidnapping," describing it as an instance of "efsad-fil-arz."
Eyewitnesses, including Abdullah Afghan and Hadi Shabani, former members of the organization, testified about the membership of direct hijacking perpetrators like Hossein Eftekhari and Dariush Dehghan in the organization and the carrying out of these operations on the orders of the central cadre. Legal representatives of the Civil Aviation Organization and Iran Air, presenting documents, complained against pilot Keyhan Jahanfakhr for hijacking the plane and delivering classified information to the MEK.
One of the emotional points of the session was the presence of families of victims of terrorist attacks. The parents of Leila Nourbakhsh, a two-year-old child martyred when organization operatives set a bus on fire in Shiraz, shared memories of that day and demanded qisas (retribution) for the perpetrators. The broadcast of confessions by "Fleur Zare," one of the perpetrators of this incident, who acknowledged the humane treatment by Iranian judicial authorities after her arrest, was another part of this session.
Also, the family of Seyed Hassan Beheshtinejad, a judge and temporary Friday Prayer Imam of Isfahan, and his three-year-old nephew Seyed Hamid, who were assassinated in 1981, were present in court and demanded international judicial follow-up and punishment for the perpetrators and commanders of this crime.
Judge Dehghani concluded by emphasizing judicial pursuit and the request for the extradition of the accused through Interpol and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that the hosting of these accused by countries like France is a clear violation of international obligations. He announced the preparation of a case to sue French judicial and executive officials if they continue to host the accused. The next court session was set for May 26.