Who is Iraj Mesdaghi?
The theocratic dictatorship ruling Iran, knowing the Iranian people’s hatred of their regime, has long been involved in a campaign to push certain talking points and painting an acceptable image of their oppressive state to the international community. To pursue this initiative Tehran needs certain individuals that, at a first glance, have nothing to do with the regime and even claim to oppose the mullahs’ despotism. Iraj Mesdaghi, who claims to oppose the Iranian regime, is an individual with a long history of deceptively pursuing Tehran’s objectives and interests in the West.
While the Iranian regime is known more for its use of terrorism and physical elimination of dissidents abroad, a far more effective tool has been established by Tehran in actual Iranians living in Europe and the U.S. They are given a white check to heavily criticize Tehran to gain legitimacy in the eyes of Westerners, while their actual objective is demonizing the Iranian opposition, by spreading misinformation, creating mistrust among Iranian expatriates, while gathering information about individuals and communities of Iranian dissidents for Tehran intelligence apparatus.
It is first necessary to understand how the Iranian regime’s network of apologists and some who define themselves as “dissidents” disguise their modus operandi and pursue Tehran’s interests. The regime’s operatives abroad, some now working as journalists/activists, concentrate 80 percent of their work against the regime to gain credibility among the Iranian Diaspora and the general public. And the remaining 20 percent is for Tehran’s needs. This also goes with so-called reporters/journalists of mainstream media who are seen pushing the Iranian regime’s talking points.
From the Tablet:
The Iranian diaspora has coined a term for this kind of news management, hashtad-beest, or “80/20,” meaning that 80% of the reporting focuses on the obvious and unavoidable, including mild or implied criticism of the regime, in order to establish credibility among foreign readers. According to Iranian political activist Heshmat Alavi, “The remaining 20 percent of their published material focuses on pushing Iran’s talking points, such as justifying Zarif’s arguments, praising Soleimani as a popular figure and criticizing Iranian opposition groups.”
Iraj Mesdaghi is an Iranian expatriate claiming to oppose the mullahs’ regime in Iran. He introduces himself as an Iranian dissident and a former senior member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the largest Iranian opposition group.
For years now, he has actually been focusing most of his attention on slandering, demonizing, and spreading disinformation about the PMOI/MEK. Mesdaghi also targets dignitaries who have supported the MEK, including former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.
“He is another charlatan. As long as he was in the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, he insisted that the PMOI cult stay on the terror list. Even when the court ruled against the listing, he renewed the charges. As soon as he was paid, what happened? He became the hired spokesperson of their gatherings. He used to sit there and repeat Mrs. President, Mrs. President Rajavi,” Mesdaghi said on January 27, 2021, on the Persian language Mihan TV.
Former political prisoners have always been in Mesdaghi’s crosshairs, most likely due to their knowledge on his suspicious relations with the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) during Mesdaghi’s time in person. Former Iranian regime official Hamid Noury, who played a direct role in Iran’s 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, was arrested on November 9, 2019, in Stockholm International Airport and was on trial for related crimes. Mesdaghi immediately launched a disinformation campaign with two objectives:
- diverting attention away from the MEK’s Justice campaign aimed at holding accountable Iranian regime officials involved in the 1988 massacre
- claiming credit for Noury’s arrested and jeopardizing the judiciary process in order to allow Noury’s defense team to claim a mistrial or discredit the evidence raised against him in any way possible
Mesdaghi claims that he was called from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport at five in the morning and told that Noury had left, adding that he had immediately arranged for his arrest (!)
Such a claim seems quite farfetched, to say the least. Secondly, even if we assume Mesdaghi’s claims to be true, who were his sources? There is reasonable ground to believe he is still in connection with the Iranian regime’s MOIS.
Mesdaghi wrote in the Pejvak-e-Iran website on 10 December 2019: “The arrest of Hamid Noury put an end to Rajavi’s so-called ‘Justice’ campaign. [Iranian Resistance leader] Massoud Rajavi is a subordinate of the [MOIS] apparatus. In a bid to serve the mullahs’ regime and its criminals, he has forbidden former political prisoners who are members of his cult to testify against Hamid Noury. Those witnesses have taken part in a clear betrayal of the martyrs and all those killed and their families, they have stood beside Hamid Noury and the criminal regime and want to help fail this project so that Hamid Noury won’t go before justice. Those so-called former political prisoners have no doubt stood beside Nayeri, Raisi, Pourmohammadi, Eshraghi, Moghise, Noury, Lashgari, Halvaii, Ghoddoussi and … and have blood on their hands. Hereafter the families of the the 1988 massacre would look at them as killers of their loved ones. History would not forgive them…”
Mesdaghi uses a variety of platforms for his smear campaign, including his Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Pejvak-e-Iran website that he runs, and a Farsi TV station called Mihan TV, where he regularly appears. The station hosts Mesdaghi every week for 4-6 hours, providing him airtime to push his slander and disinformation. More than 80 percent of Mihan TV’s content is against the Iranian opposition, falling in line with the 80-20 protocol mentioned previously.
Swedish authorities decided to transfer the proceedings of Hamid Noury’s trial to Albania in order to hear testimony from seven MEK members who spent time in the Iranian regime’s prisons and survived the 1988 massacre. It is still interesting that Mesdaghi claimed on June 3, 2020, on Mihan TV that MEK members “are working hard to make the Noury project fail.”
Now that Noury has been sentenced to life in prison, one simple question Mesdaghi still refuses to answer is that why did Noury send emails to Mesdaghi prior to leaving Iran and heading to Sweden? And what were they discussing? And why did we have to learn of these communications after its discovery by Swedish authorities?
Regarding Mesdaghi’s claims of being the main element behind Noury’s arrest, Kazeh Mousavi, a known Iranian lawyer, said the following in an interview with Voice of America – Persian on July 14:
“This is an all out lie. Hamid Noury received a visa [to travel to Sweden] on October 13, 2019. Three days later, Noury’s son-in-law, Mr. Sadeghi, had a meeting with Iraj Mesdaghi. Mesdaghi made a telephone call to me while Mr. Sadeghi was present. Three days afterwards, [Mesdaghi] came to the United Kingdom and took me to the home of two witnesses. Afterwards he went to the U.S. Through this interview I am telling you that [Mesdaghi’s claims] are absolute lies.”
From Mr. Mousavi’s we come to learn that Mesdaghi had nothing to do with Noury’s arrest in November 2019.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International decided to issue a special letter marking the 30th anniversary of the 1988 massacre and thus interview a number of the massacre survivors in Albania. In response, Mesdaghi literally became hysterically hostile towards the organization.
Below are various examples of Mesdaghi’s remarks about Amnesty International
Mihan TV, 14 May 2020
Shadi Sadr and Shadi Amin are two charlatans. They took millions of dollars in human rights. Millions. They took money for human rights and political prisoners. I said that they did not buy even one of my books for the millions of dollars they received, one of my books ... This part of the Amnesty International report was cooked by Shadi Sadr and Shadi Amin with the support and cooperation of Raha Bahraini... Shadi Sadr and Shadi Amin conspired with Rajavi's dirty sect and went to Albania and took Amnesty International with them.
Mihan TV, 26 August 2020
Shadi Sadr and Sahdi Amin have today even tarnished Amnesty International’s image. They want to make a fuss now about the 1988 massacre.
Mihan TV, 30 September 2020
But I warned last time that Amnesty International is violating the framework of its duties. This is a decline for Amnesty International especially their Iran section.
Mihan TV, 3 July 2019
Amnesty International report is a handful of lies and deceptions.
Mesdaghi’s time in prison
Mr. Fereydoun Jourak, a famous Iranian film personality, wrote an article entitled "Iraj Mesdaghi wrote a book for the monster of Evin Assadollah Lajevardi" describing in detail Mesdaghi’s close relations with prison authorities, especially head of Tehran’s Evin Prison, Assadollah Lajeveradi. The article was published on July 10, 2016, on the "Our Iran" website:
I remembered seeing [Mesdaghi] in Ward 311 of Evin Prison, not as a prisoner, but more as a companion, assistant, and assistant to one of the ward 7 interrogators.
…[a] meeting was attended by Iraj Mesdaghi, Qassem Asnaashari, Reza Keyvanzad, and one of the ward officials, who was often a dirty and ruthless interrogator named Fazel, who coordinated the meeting.
The only meeting that took place in ward 311 during which I (Fereydoun Jourak) was present at was a meeting attended by Mesdaghi and led by Rahmani, whose later name was Mohammad Davoodabadi and who was also known as Mohammad Mehraein.
I became more and more aware that the Ministry of Intelligence and its mercenaries, from Ahmad Reza Karimi to Karim Haghi and to Mesdaghi, have no real say against the Resistance. "They all play a note in an orchestra led by Haj Agha Alavi or Ta’eb [1]..."
[1] Mahmoud Alavi, Minister of Intelligence Security, and Hossein Ta’eb, former IRGC counter intelligence chief
Fereydoun Jourak, 12 August 2020
"Mesdaghi tried his best to position himself as an MEK member who had left the organization. A so-called repentant. He wanted to say, ‘I was with the organization, but because I saw problems in them, I withdrew.’ While this was not the case at all.”
Was Iraj Mesdaghi in solitary confinement from April to autumn 1983?
Mesdaghi writes on page 222 of the first volume of his book that he was in solitary confinement in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran. However, from March to September 1983, ward 9 of Gohardasht was under the control of Evin, and no prisoners were brought to this ward from Gohardasht’s other wards.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Mesdaghi attempted to conceal his collaboration with the regime’s “Death Committee” responsible for determining the fate of political prisoners during the 1988 massacre through kangaroo trials that lasted mere minutes.
"On August 16th, the executions were interrupted following a phone call and no longer continued."
These remarks prove that Mesdaghi was sitting next to members of the Death Committee. Otherwise no prisoner in a cell or in a prison ward would learn about a phone call with the highest officials involved in the 1988 massacre?
The fact is that Iraj Mesdaghi was in the Death Commission and was taken to the wards, with a longue over his head. He could see the prisoners’ faces and identify them, but the prisoners could not identify him. He would show the resilient prisoners to the Death Commission members and then directed out of the room. Regime authorities did not want the prisoners to know about him.
Interrogation of Marxists prisoners in Iran
Over the past years, the People's Fedayeen Guerrilla Organization of Iran has repeatedly published important articles about the role of Iraj Mesdaghi in interrogating members of their organization while in prison, and his efforts to infiltrate organizations opposed to the Iranian regime. Two examples are cited below:
Mesdaghi and the MOIS
"After [Mesdaghi’s] arrest and promise to cooperate, he betrayed many people. He repeatedly tortured and interrogated detainees. After that, he was appointed as a torturer in the team of ‘repentant-makers’ along with [former Iranian regime president] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hossein Shariatmadari [editor in chief of Kayhan, the mouthpiece of Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei]. In the books he has written, he does not hide the fact that he has been a repentant for seven years.
“Mesdaghi was sent to Turkey with his family after a long period of espionage by the MOIS. With the help of MOIS agents in different countries, the regime was able to introduce Mesdaghi to the United Nations as an opponent of the regime and to install him as an opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Misinformation targeting human rights activists
Mesdaghi has a history of voicing baseless and unfounded allegations against human rights activists that only benefits the Iranian regime as it distracts attention away from the regime’s crimes and the victims of the mullahs’ long record of gross human rights violations.
Mihan TV, 30 December 2020
Shadi Sadr and Shadi Amin have, in one case, embezzled 123,000 euros.
Mesdaghi’s Facebook page, 10 April 2019
Shadi Sadr and Shadi Amin have received nearly 700,000 pounds in funding from one British organization alone. The money received by these two from Hyfos and projects affiliated with the US State Department, etc., amounts to millions of dollars.
Infiltrating opposition networks
For some time Mesdaghi was focusing his attention on infiltrating into the ranks of opposition groups, especially their networks of supporters living in Europe and North America. Mesdaghi focused mostly on finding his place among former political prisoners and MEK supporters who eventually discovered his close ties with the mullahs’ regime and became suspicious about his behaviors. Former political prisoner Reza Fallah writes:
“...we are not facing a repentant, but an influential mercenary who has been in charge of writing the black record books in [Tehran’s notorious] Evin Prison in 1982 and 1983, and has played the role of an interrogator's assistant and torturer. This showed that Mesdaghi was not a broken prisoner from the start, but an infiltrator who, inside and outside the regime’s prisons, inside and outside Iran, carried out assignments instructed by the MOIS. Mesdaghi’s thirty-year-old process can only be defined as that of a trained and professional infiltrator!”
More damning content about Mesdaghi
Fathullah Khamenei is one of the political prisoners during the Shah's reign who was first sentenced to death and then to life imprisonment, only to be released during Iran’s 1979 revolution. He has written two articles about Mesdaghi and his role.
One of his articles, "Injustice against massacred prisoners under the guise of litigation," was published on July 3, 2020:
Mesdaghi is someone who 780 prisoners were witness to the fact that he follows the lines of the MOIS and serves the regime. In an interview with the VOA, he himself confessed that he was not executed because he wrote a repentance letter, and in his memoirs he confessed to participating in a prosecutor's patrol to hunt down opposition members.
The "Rahyafteh" website, affiliated to Khamenei’s faction in the mullahs’s regime, published an article criticizing the MOIS’ performance, and explicitly wrote that Mesdaghi is an influential MOIS element among the opposition, and is on the MOIS’ payroll. This article, "The Religion of Islam and the Evil Charisma of Eclecticism", published on 29 May 2020, also examines the basis of the regime's problem and explains the reason for such efforts.
Excerpts from this article are as follows:
On the other hand, although the devoted forces of the system are sacrificing their lives with efforts to confront these fingers of hypocrisy, but is this enough?
The fact that Mr. Alavi (Honorable Minister of Intelligence) has hired some repentant hypocrites such as Soltani, Khodabandeh, Ezzati, Hosseini, Yaghmaei, Karimdadi, Mesdaghi, Pourhossein, etc. with his day-to-day work, with great energy and, of course, financing, leads repentance to a psychological confrontation with the hypocrites themselves, it is excellent; But is it enough? ...
This piece was written with the intention to provide the reader with ample information about Iraj Mesdaghi. We can easily conclude that he is not an unbiased figure and certainly not an Iranian dissident. It is quite obvious that he is pushing Tehran’s agenda and running the mullahs’ talking points, and providing legitimate grounds to be accused as an MOIS agent.
A dirty example