The mid-November uprising turned on Tehran once again. This time, however, the spark that ignited the powder-keg was the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in the sky of the Iranian capital city, which resulted in the death of 176 innocent people.

The most senior terrorist and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) chieftain, Qassem Soleimani’s record was published on the Washington Times paper version last week, under “Iran Regime’s Terror Master, Qassem Soleimani’s Record”.

Following the designation of two Iranian regime’s ‘judges’ on Thursday, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State said the US will stand with the Iranian people.

“The United States will stand and has stood under President Trump with the Iranian people. Our public support, our moral support is important.  Our calls for justice matter.” Pompeo said at the State Department on December 19, 2019, adding:

The United States announced new sanctions on Thursday targeting two criminal Judges implementing the Iranian regime’s brutal and bloody crackdown on the protesters. The US Treasury released a press statement concerning the new designation.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution in support of the nationwide uprising in Iran. House Resolution 752 also called on the White House to request that the U.N. Security Council and Human Rights Council call an emergency session to condemn the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

H.R. 752, “Supporting the rights of the people of Iran to free expression, condemning the Iranian regime for its crackdown on legitimate protests, and for other purposes,” was introduced by Rep. Theodore E. Deutch (D-FL) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC).

In a November 24, 2019 op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, Homeira Hesami of the Iranian-American Community of North Texas argued that the international community lacks a complete picture of the Iranian regime’s response to the nationwide protests that are raging throughout the country. Because Internet access in Iran is still limited to government officials and state-run media, the world has only had a glimpse of the crime against humanity that is currently taking place.

The British website the Daily Star Online reported the release of a new book about the 1988 Massacre in a November 12, 2019 article. The book, entitled “Crime against Humanity,” was written by members of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and describes the “Death Commissions” which were tasked with carrying out the mass executions of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, most of whom were the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) members.

 

MEK supporters around the world are reacting to the recent false BBC reports about the MEK with anger on social media. People on Twitter used the hashtag #AyatollahBBC to express their displeasure with the BBC’s biased reporting on the MEK.

The hashtag had more than 20,000 tweets in a two-hour period on Wednesday night and quickly began to trend worldwide. As of Thursday, Twitter monitoring records show that the hashtag has been shown to Twitter users more than 20 million times.

The Original Report

The BBC attracted the ire of the Iranian diaspora on November 7, 2019, when it aired a report on the MEK that rehashed old regime propaganda. The sources used in the report were MOIS operatives claiming to be “former MEK members,” a regime tactic that has been repeatedly exposed.

#BBC showed up as a mouthpiece of the barbarian mullahs against #MEKhttps://t.co/iU0KKXEloT#StopYellowJournalism #FakeNews #Iran #MEK
@BBCWorld @LPressly @Ofcom @BBCPersian pic.twitter.com/gPor5xDOGe

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 14, 2019

The report focused on MEK members living at Ashraf-3, the MEK’s new headquarters in Albania, which has been the target of attempted terrorist plots by the Iranian regime and vicious smear campaigns attempting to discredit the organization and lay the groundwork for future attacks.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) Security and Counter-Terrorism Committee released a statement on the day the report was broadcast clarifying the allegations made in the report and noting the attempts made by the Iranian regime to discredit the MEK using “former MEK members.”

The Censored Report

Four days later, on November 11th, the BBC’s English and Persian websites posted a censored version of the broadcast to appeal to the Iranian regime’s media outlets and Friday prayer leaders. The censored version of the broadcast was less than half the runtime of the original and excluded any positive mentions of the MEK. The BBC’s accommodation of the Iranian regime’s propaganda machine clearly showed the lengths to which the outlet had chosen to go to serve the clerical regime, even as the religious tyranny is faltering under the weight of Iranian people’s resistance, tightening economic sanctions, regional developments, and increasing international isolation.

Later that day, BBC Persian TV invited the “former MEK members” to come on air and repeat their allegations about the MEK once more on television.

Origin of Ayatollah BBC

The phrase “Ayatollah BBC” was coined after the 1988 Massacre when the BBC Persian reporter

Sadeq Saba went into Iranian prisons to interview prisoners. Saba broke the journalist’s ethical code and interviewed prisoners who had been tortured to the point of submission and gave false information out of fear for their lives. The Iranian regime used these interviews to whitewash the crimes that took place inside its prisons, to delegitimize the MEK, and to justify their continued repression of MEK activists.

The #Iranian regime has responded to the continued uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon through #BBC's #FakeNews gainst #MEKhttps://t.co/A3uFkpMmBM#Iran #FakeNewsMedia @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/sI5zZtsRqe

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 13, 2019

30,000 political prisoners were executed during a single summer during the 1988 Massacre, most of whom were MEK members. Many of them were tortured before they were shot or hanged and then buried in mass, unmarked graves. To date, none of the perpetrators have ever faced justice for their roles in this crime against humanity.

BBC Persian has never apologized for the role it played in assisting the Iranian regime in oppressing its people, not has it acknowledged its role in helping the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre evade justice.

Following the dubious death of a young poet, Hassan Heidari, 29, on Monday, November 10, angry people took to the streets in Shadegan-Ahvaz, blocking the roads.

Confronting the angry people, the Iranian regime deployed its suppressive security forces in the streets. In the face of oppressive forces, the defiant youth torched lights and blocked the roads.

November 10 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Anti-regime demonstration calling for people to rise up following the mysterious murder of a local poet. pic.twitter.com/hvTN9FRgxT

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 10, 2019

About the dubious death of Hassan Heidari, one of his relatives said: ” First, Hassan felt he was suffering from food poisoning, so we took him to the hospital, at midnight. Nurses tried to help him, however, he suffered a shock and died subsequently. We were told he died due to poisoning.”

“He was a full-bodied healthy man and he had no heart problems and illnesses what-so-ever. The Iranian Regime’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) is responsible for his death.” The relative added.

Because of his poems, Hassan Heidari had been arrested by the notorious agents of the MOIS several times in Ahvaz. He was arrested in August for the last time and later released on bail.

According to the reports, the defiant youth of Ahvaz joined the protesters in Shadegan.

Al-Arabiya TV reported a night of protest in Ahvaz. Al-Arabiya added that following the news about the assassination of a poet, Hassan Heidari, hundreds took to the streets at night, blaming the authorities for the assassination. The social media activists posted images and videos showing hundreds of youth marching in Ahvaz’s streets chanting slogans against the authorities asking for the reason for the death of the young poet who had been arrested for his political poems and his activities in favor of his countrymen. The protesters blocked the main roads.

November 11 – Kut Abdullah, Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Massive demonstration following the killing of a local poet.pic.twitter.com/VcGOj0ssC3

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 11, 2019

The young people in Ahvaz continued marching toward the main squares of the city chanting: “Ahvaz, rise up”.

People in Shadegan continued protesting until the early morning of November 11.

This is not the first time the Iranian regime assassinates dissidents. The Mullahs try to intimidate the society and silence dissidents; however, the events in Ahvaz and Shadegan once again proved that these assassinations just fuel the protests against this cruel regime.

This is the nature of mullahs’ regime, on the one hand, it kills its own people, and on the other hand, suppresses and kills the people of other states like Iraq and Lebanon by its proxy forces.

Committing a massacre in 1988 in which 30,000 of Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) members and supporters were slaughtered, killing and imprisoning journalists and environmental activists, meddling, and fueling terrorism in neighboring countries are just a part of this regime’s record in the past four decades. In recent uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon people demand eviction of the Iranian regime of their countries.

A new era has started and a bright future is on the horizon for the Iranian people as well as the people of the region. The new chapter of history will be written by the Iranian people and the MEK’s resistance units and also the people of neighboring countries.

The Iranian regime’s representative at the review session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva claimed that his country is one of the largest democracies in Western Asia and doesn’t need a Special Rapporteur, even though Amnesty International and Western governments have repeatedly and strongly condemned the regime’s violation of human rights.

Javad Larijani, the Iranian regime’s representative to the Human Rights Council, claimed on Friday that UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman had formed his opinion based solely on the information provided by Iran’s main opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK).

Iran’s Representative to the UN Human Rights Council Claims That the Special Rapporteur Receives His Documents From the MEK https://t.co/vFHx1OSkIO

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 11, 2019

This bizarre claim about the MEK came just two days after Amnesty International urged the international community to “publicly condemn the deterioration in Iran’s human rights record” during the review session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said:

“From horrific execution rates, to the relentless persecution of human rights defenders, rampant discrimination against women and minorities, and ongoing crimes against humanity, the catalogue of appalling violations recorded in Iran reveals a sharp deterioration in its human rights record.”

Larijani’s ridiculous comments about the MEK did not stop Western countries from condemning Iran’s human rights violations in the session, with representatives from around the world criticizing the regime for executing over 120,000 MEK members for peaceful political activism; 30,000 of whom during the 1988 massacre.

United States representative Mark Cassayre said:

“For decades Iran has flagrantly violated its citizens’ human rights: We urge the government to allow the Special Rapporteur on Iran to visit the country and investigate existing practices.”

While Miriam Shearman, Britain’s deputy representative to the UN in Geneva, said:

“We remain deeply concerned by Iran’s failure to uphold international legal obligations, and its arbitrary detention of citizens and dual nationals arrested on unclear charges, denied due process and subject to mistreatment.”

And it should be noted that despite the Regime’s massive efforts to cover up the executions of the MEK, one member of the 1988 “Death Commissions” that sent the  MEK members to their deaths, defended the massacre in July. Amnesty responded to former Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi’s comments about the massacre of the MEK by saying that these

“provide shocking confirmation of the authorities’ wilful flouting of international human rights law both at the time and now and a stark reminder of the sense of impunity that senior officials linked to the killings enjoy”.

Protesters in Geneva Call for End to Three Decades of #Impunity for #Iran Regime’s Leaders https://t.co/UG2rhp0RW0#1988Massacre #NoImpunity4Mullahs

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 9, 2019

Amnesty was “particularly concerned” that he accused those advocating for truth and accountability regarding the massacre of the MEK of ‘terrorism’ and ‘collusion’ and threatening them with a prosecution. Amnesty said Iranian officials must not be allowed to protect themselves from accountability in the MEK massacre.