Massoud Rajavi

Masoud Rajavi
President of National Council of Resistance
In office 1 March 1981 – 10 August 1993
Vice President	Maryam Rajavi
Preceded by	Position estabilished
Succeeded by	Maryam Rajavi
Leader of People's Mojahedin Organization
In office 9 April 1965 – 2 February 1993
Deputy	Maryam Rajavi
Preceded by	Party created
Succeeded by	Maryam Rajavi
Personal details
Born	18 August 1948 (1948-08-18) (age 63) Tabas, Iran
Political party	People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
Spouse(s)	Maryam Rajavi
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam

Massoud Rajavi (Persian: مسعود رجوی, born 18 August 1948), is the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as the MEK), an opposition organization active inside and outside of Iran. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he has not made any public appearances, although it is believed he has sent several audio messages to his followers. The last of these messages was sent on 22 August 2011 congratulating the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya and the great victory of the people.

Biography

Massoud Rajavi is a graduate of political law from Tehran University. He joined the PMOI when he was 20 and a law student at Tehran University. Later on he was arrested by SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) and was sentenced to death. Due to efforts by his brother Prof. Kazem Rajavi, he was not executed and remained in prison until released by the people during the revolution in 1979. His death sentence was commuted as a result of international pressure.^[1]

Despite efforts by his brother, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as distinguished European personalities such as François Mitterrand, Prof. Kazem Rajavi was assassinated in April 1990 in Geneva by agents of the Iranian islamic regime.^[2]

Massoud Rajavi was released from prison three weeks before the revolution in February 1979. Upon his release, Rajavi assumed leadership of the Islamic MEK, reclaiming the name from the Marxists.^[3] This was the beginning of the MEK as it exists today. Rajavi and the MEK actively opposed the Shah of Iran and participated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Following the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the removal of the Shah, MEK vigorously pursued its objective of establishing democracy in Iran.^[4] Although MEK had begun as a very small organization – given that the majority of its members just emerged from prison in 1979 – its membership grew quickly.^[5] However, the group's ideology, which was quite different from the Ayatollahs’ interpretation of Islam, clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini's government. By the time Iran’s first presidential election took place in January 1980, MEK had gathered significant support in Iran, including support from Jews and Kurds.^[6] Rajavi was one of the candidates for Iran's presidential elections; however before the final result of the election was announced, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered to omit Rajavi's name from the list of candidates.^[7] When Rajavi was barred from running for office, many Kurds, who widely supported Rajavi, also boycotted the election.^[8] In a speech in June 1980 at Tehran’s Amjadieh Stadium, Rajavi criticized the regime’s leaders, especially Ayattollah Khoimeini, about the suppression of liberties.

In 1981, when Ayatollah Khomeini dismissed President Bani Sadr and a new wave of arrests and executions started in the country, Rajavi and Bani Sadr flew to Paris from Tehran's airbase. In 1986 Rajavi moved to Iraq and set up a base on the Iranian border.^[9][10] Rajavi was welcomed in Baghdad by then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.^[11] According to the New York Times, MEK forces assisted Saddam in his 1991 campaign against the Kurds.^[12] The claim proved to be false when Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, a former leader in the Kurdish Democratic Party and now the foreign minister of Iraq, signed a document taken from a lawsuit in the Netherlands which specifically states that MEK never showed hostilities toward the Kurds, “we have not come across any evidence to suggest that the Mojahedin have exercised any hostility towards the people of Iraqi Kurdistan.”^[13] On Nov 30, 2007 a British Court, The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), ruled to the annulment of the terrorist designation and ordered the British government to remove PMOI from the terrorist list.^[14][15] On 23 January 2008, the European Council's Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, backed a report attacking the methods used by the UN Security Council and the EU to blacklist individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections abuse basic rights and are "completely arbitrary". This issue covers the case of the PMOI.^[16] The US State Department, however, still classifies the MEK as a terrorist organization.^[17][11]

Following the American invasion of Iraq, Massoud Rajavi disappeared, presumably fearing retaliation by Iranian agents following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent loss of protection for him and his followers. No evidence has emerged as to his involvement in the radio messages he frequently sends to his followers. In his absence, Maryam Rajavi has assumed his responsibilities as leader of the MEK. As of 2005, over 300 members of the group had returned to Iran voluntarily and claimed asylum,^[18] however, 3,400 others still live in Camp Ashraf.

References

1. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 291
2. ^ See Hossein Abedini, Rafsanjani and His Hit Man, WASHINGTON TIMES, June 16, 2005.
3. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 146¬147, 183.
4. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 184.
5. ^ Seegenerally, Abrahamian, supranote 363
6. ^ SeeAbrahamian, supranote 363 at 198.
7. ^ http://www.iacnorcal.com/Iranhistory.html
8. ^ SeeAbstract, NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 26, 1980 (1980 WLNR 272101).
9. ^ Council on Foreign Relations, "Backgrounder: Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (Iranian Rebels)."
10. ^ Smith, Craig S. (September 24, 2005). "An implacable opponent to the mullahs of Iran". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/world/africa/23iht-profile.html?_r=1. 
11. ^ ^{a b} http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/26/117689.html
12. ^ Rubin, Elizabeth. "The Cult of Rajavi." The New York Times, July 13, 2003.
13. ^ SeeWright, supranote 455
14. ^ "Christopher Booker: Iranians freed from ban". The Daily Telegraph (London). December 2, 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/02/nbook102.xml. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
15. ^ http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paIran_fr12_Iran_opposition_blacklist&show_article=1&state=-1%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C1%7C0%7C0
16. ^ http://euobserver.com/22/25123
17. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)". US Department of State. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-09-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20060919212637/http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-22. 
18. ^ Angela Woodall (2005). "Group on U.S. terror list lobbies hard". United Press International. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050531-terror-list.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 

External links

• Official Website of the PMOI
• Website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
• Official Website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Persian
• National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee

Party political offices
Preceded by None	Leader of People's Mujahedin of Iran 1965-1993	Succeeded by Maryam Rajavi
Political offices
Preceded by None	President of National Council of Resistance 1981-1993	Succeeded by Maryam Rajavi

Persondata
Name	Rajavi, Massoud
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948-08-18
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Date of death
Place of death