Who is Ebrahim Khodabandeh? – Chief Executive Officer of Iranian Intelligence Service’s “Nejat Society”
Ebrahim Khodabandeh is an agent of the Iranian regime who, in the name of the director of the “Nejat Society” in Iran, professionally serves the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) in suppressing and intimidating the families of the PMOI – MEK members.
“Nejat Society” is one of the branches of the infamous Ministry of Intelligence of Iran. As stated in the MOIS official documents it is main responsibilities are to “expose the terrorist nature of the hypocrites [Pejorative name used by the regime for MEK, strives to have MEK members leave the organization, orchestrate media campaigns against MEK, and organize seminars, conferences, and expositions against MEK”.
In addition, one other main goal of the “Nejat Society” is to exert pressure by whatever means, including making direct threats against the families of the MEK members, in order to force them to cooperate and spread lies and misinformation about their own loved ones and the MEK. Since joining the MOIS, Ebrahim Khodabandeh has actively participated in interrogation of tortured prisoners, identifying and exposing the members of the resistance, intimidating and menacing of the families of the MEK members, and negative campaigning against MEK and its members. The MOIS dispatched Khodabandeh along with his brother and his sister in law to Iraq to lead a psychological warfare and a demonization campaign against the MEK as a prelude for lethal attacks on their camps, Ashraf and Liberty.
A research report on the MOIS by the US Library of Congress commissioned by the Pentagon, clearly identifies Ebrahim Khodabandeh and his brother Massoud and his wife Ann Singleton as agents of the MOIS.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh Background
During his visit to Syria in April 2003, the Syrian government arrested Ebrahim Khodabandeh along with another person, Jamil Bassam, and extradited both men to Iran a few months later. After a short time in prison, Ebrahim Khodabandeh began cooperating with the MOIS against the PMOI – MEK.
How MOIS recruited Ebrahim Khodabandeh
According to the research report by the U.S. Library of Congress, Ebrahim Khodabandeh’s brother Massoud, who was also a member of PMOI – MEK, decided to leave the organization in 1996, He then married Anne Singleton, an English woman who worked with the PMOI -MEK until the late 1980s. The report writes:
“ Soon after their marriage, MOIS forced them to cooperate by threatening to confiscate Khodabandeh’s mother’s extensive property in Tehran. Singleton and Khodabandeh then agreed to work for MOIS and spy on MEK. In 2002 Singleton met in Tehran with MOIS agents who were interested in her background. She agreed to cooperate with MOIS to save her brother-in-law’s life—he was still a member of MEK at the time. During her stay in Tehran, she received training from MOIS. After her return to England, she launched the iran-interlink.org Web site in the winter of 2002. After she made many trips to Iran and Singapore—the country where the agency contacts its foreign agents—MEK became doubtful of Singleton and Khodabandeh’s loyalty to the organization. In 2004 Singleton finally met her brother-in-law, Ebrahim, who was sent from Syria to Iran after the Syrians arrested him (it appears that Syrians closely cooperate with MOIS). Eventually, MOIS forced him to cooperate as well.”
The link for the entire report by the U.S. Library of Congress:
IRAN’S MINISTRY OF INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY-A PROFILE
Struan Stevenson, former member of the European Parliament who is Coordinator for the “Campaign for Iran Change (CIC)” writes: “In June 2004, Win Griffiths, a former Labor Member of the British Parliament, travelled to Tehran to meet a prisoner in Evin prison. In a witness statement he said: “When I went to Evin, expecting to meet the detainees in private, I was surprised to see Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Ebrahim’s sister-in-law, in Evin Prison. She later claimed that she was there as part of an NGO visit. Yet it was clear to me that the prison guards treated her as a friend and on their side, rather than as a member of an independent NGO”.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh’s Testimony in court
When Ebrahim Khodabandeh was not yet cooperating with the MOIS and was living in London provided witness statement to Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) on 12 November 2002 that his brother Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife were working for the MOIS as agents of disinformation campaign against PMOI – MEK.
He states, “The person who set up and runs ‘Iran-Interlink’ is my brother’s wife, Anne Khodabandeh (nee Singleton). Anne Khodabandeh married my brother some years ago, but it was not until four years ago that I began to suspect that she had links with the Iranian clerical regime. I have been aware for some time now that my brother, Massoud Khodabandeh, has links with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.”
Today, Ebrahim Khodabandeh is fully deployed by the Iranian regime’s intelligence apparatus in demonization campaign against the PMOI – MEK
The link for the entire testimony:
WITNESS STATEMENT OF EBRAHIM KHODABANDEH
Interrogating inmates in Evin Prison
Many PMOI – MEK members have testified on how Ebrahim Khodabandeh approached their families in Iran at the behest of the MOIS and threatened them to cooperate and participate in press conferences against the PMOI – MEK.
Khodabandeh actively participates in the interrogation of pro PMOI – MEK political prisoners. A political prisoner, Amir Parvizi, born in 1979, writes that; in the city of Zanjan, he was an employee of a computer assembly company. At the same time, he was involved in political activities against the regime. Amir was arrested during a demonstration in Tehran on July 12, 2005 and transferred to the notorious Evin Prison, where he was tortured and interrogated. He says that in one of these interrogations, Ebrahim Khodabandeh also participated in the role of assistant interrogator. Amir Parvizi joined the PMOI – MEK in Iraq after his release from prison.
A political prisoner Saleh Kohandel, writes that after his arrest, torture, and spending months in solitary confinement, he was transferred to Ward 209 in Evin Prison. He adds that there was a private room with all facilities, including a computer and various CDs allocated to Ebrahim Khodabandeh. He further adds that Khodabandeh was granted special furlough from time to time for one week each time. He further mentioned that; “One day when Khodabandeh was on leave, I went to his room and saw in the drawer a number of photos of members of the organization [PMOI- MEK]from different gatherings and ceremonies abroad. He had marked their faces with a sharpie.”
Footman of the MOIS’s demonization campaign against PMOI – MEK
The Iranian regime has resorted to a large-scale demonization campaign against the Mojahedin as they are afraid of growing support for the MEK inside Iran. The Iranian regime has published hundreds of books, has made numerous anti MEK movies and TV series, as they are particularly concerned with the popularity of MEK among students in the college and higher education institutions. As such, Ebrahim Khodabandeh has been ordered to devote his effort mostly in these centers.
Pictures of Ebrahim Khodabandeh participating in anti MEK meetings organized by the MOIS in different cities and universities in Iran
in these meetings, Ebrahim Khodabandeh campaigns for the repression of the Mojahedin by the regime and the execution of political prisoners.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh: “Our current security is the result of the decisive ruling of the Imam in 1988” –
Hublian, a Ministry of Intelligence website, which is dedicated to the demonizing campaign against the PMOI – MEK, reported that Ebrahim Khodabandeh in a meeting with the mullahs of Mashhad has said that; “Our current security is the result of the Imam’s decisive verdict in 1988”. It is noteworthy to mention that following this verdict, over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of PMOI – MEK and sympathizers, were executed within a few months.
“Sleepwalkers” an anti PMOI – MEK book introduction ceremonyFrom right to left
1.Ruhollah Hosseinian, Head of the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center, 2. Ebrahim Khodabandeh 3. Safaaldin Tabraeian, the author 4. – Haidar Moslehi, former Minister of MOIS
The people in the picture above are among the most criminal elements of the regime. Moslehi is banned from entering Europe because of the crimes he has committed against Iranian citizens and political prisoners. The United States has also imposed sanctions on Moslehi for “beating,” “torturing,” and “sexually assaulting” the detainees in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Ruhollah Hosseinian, who died from COVID19 in August 2020, is one of the executioners and torturers of PMOI – MEK prisoners, who became famous for the phrase: “Dear, I was once a murderer.”
Another way that the MOIS uses Ebrahim Khodabandeh is participating him in meetings with
foreign political figures visiting Iran. His duty is to demonize the PMOI – MEK hoping to pressurize them in the European countries.
To legitimize their anti PMOI – MEK claims, some of these foreign visitors, such as *Emma Nicholson, a well-known Iranian regime lobbyist in Britain for instance, would claim that have met a representative of the PMOI – MEK families in Iran where in reality they have only met with this agent.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Emma Nicholson at the “Nejat Society” meeting
The MOIS dispatched Ebrahim Khodabandeh and his brother, Massoud Khodabandeh, to Iraq in 2014 while the PMOI – MEK members were still under rocket attacks conducted by the elements of the Iranian regime. Their mission was to pursue the MOIS instruction for some more effective ways to suppress the PMOI – MEK in Iraq. These included, efforts to extradite the members to Iran, extention of the logistical and medical siege imposed on Camp Liberty, and introduce a bill in the Iraqi parliament for prosecution of the members of the PMOI – MEK staying in Iraq.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh with Adnan Shahmani, Member of the Iraqi Parliament and Chairman of the Committee to Investigate PMOI – MEK Case in the Iraqi Parliament. Shamhani is one of the most prominent elements of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force and the head of the death squads in Iraq
According to the Iranian MOIS websites, Ebrahim Khodabandeh met with the regime’s ambassador to Iraq, Danaeifar, a Quds Force – Revolutionary Guards commander, to discuss ways to dispatch the MOIS agents under the guise of the PMOI – MEK families to Iraq and to settle outside their residence in Camp Liberty.
Absurd demand from INTERPOL to return the members to Iran
On July 10 and 11, 2017, several meetings called Project Kalkan were held in Tehran with the Secretary General of INTERPOL. In these meetings, the MOIS introduced its agents, including Ebrahim Khodabandeh, as representatives of the PMOI – MEK families. The Iranian regime further arranged for a photo exhibition and in this exhibition asked the Secretary General of INTERPOL to facilitate extradition of the PMOI – MEK from Albania to Iran.
Ebrahim Khoabandeh and other MOIS agents in Kakan meeting in Tehran
A year before the meeting of Project Kalkan in Iran, Shabani, the deputy chief of operations at the IRGC’s Sarollah base in Tehran, had officially announced that he had filed criminal cases against 830 PMOI – MEK members with INTERPOL to have them arrested and handed over to the Iranian regime. (Fars News Agency owned by the Revolutionary Guards – July 25, 2016)
The MOIS websites, including Iran-Interlink, which is run by the wife of Ebrahim Khodabandeh’s brother, wrote on July 13, 2017 that during these meetings, Ebrahim Khodabandeh, a phony representative of the PMOI – MEK families, asked INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock, to extradite the PMOI – MEK members to Iran. Khodabandeh falsely representing himself as the spokesman for the families, cited that the families never want a bad end for their loved ones. “When they raise the issue of the extradition of members of this group, they are sure that it is in their best interest.” A few days later, Kayhan newspaper, which is Khamenei’s mouthpiece wrote: “The Secretary General of the INTERPOL refused to answer a question about [PMLI – MEK]: The Secretary General of the Interpol Organization left the question about them unanswered.”
Collaboration in the campaign to dispatch agents to Albania under guise of families
After the Iranian regime failed to gain access to the PMOI – MEK through INTERPOL in 2018, and shortly afterwards, its terrorist plots in Albania failed, leading to the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and four other embassy officials from Albania, it restored to other plots. One of the such plots was securing Albanian entry visas for its agents and agents and terrorists under the guise of the PMOI – MEK family members who were worried and wanting to meet with their loved ones in Ashraf 3 in Albania. Ebrahim Khodabandeh is at the forefront of carrying out this plot and regularly writes letters to the Albanian government on his own or other families’ behalf or by pressuring and threatening the other families to do the same.
An example of these letters of Ebrahim Khodabandeh:
Mr. Edi Rama, Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania
“I am writing to you on behalf of the hundreds of suffering MEK members who have settled in your country. I would like to remind you that the letters from the families addressed to the Presidential Office have remained completely unanswered so far.” (Nejat Society website – May 4, 2020)
Khodabandeh also by threatening or enticing the families in Iran exerts pressure on them to write letters to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to complain that their loved ones are missing in Albania. In this way, the Iranian regime is trying to put pressure on Albania to allow its agents and terrorists to enter the country under cover of PMOI – MEK families.
However, there are a number of MOIS agents in Albania. Ebrahim and Massoud Khodabandeh coordinate the agents activities in Albania to advance the instructions and aims of the Iranian regime.
Footnote:
*Emma Nicholson, in collaboration with the MOIS, put the most pressure on Ashraf residents after the fall of the former Iraqi government, paving the way for further attacks on Ashraf residents. An Iraqi war victim in an article on The Daily Telegraph (March 6, 2003) reports on the scams of Emma Nicholson and how she had abused him to scam the humanitarian agencies for her personal benefits.
Source » iranprobe