Razieh Kermanshahei passed away on May 13, a few weeks after her transfer to a hospital in the Albanian capital Tirana for urgent surgery.
Ms Kermanshahei is the fourth MEK member to die shortly after transfer to Albania.
Ms Kermanshahei, 57, had devoted her life since the age of 19 to the struggle against the dictatorships of the Shah and mullahs in Iran, and had been arrested, imprisoned and tortured at the time of the Shah.
Her brother, MEK member Gholamreza Kermanshahei, was arrested in 1975 and martyred under torture by the SAVAK (the Shah’s secret police).
Ms Razieh Kermanshahei was transferred to Albania in mid-March 2014 with a group of MEK members.
At the behest of the Iranian regime, the Iraqi Government of Nouri al-Maliki had imposed a medical siege on MEK members in Camp Ashraf who were later transferred to Camp Liberty.
While in a critical condition due to the prolonged medical siege, immediately after her arrival in Albania, Ms Kermanshahei was under medical care.
After a few weeks, she underwent major surgery, but despite all the efforts of doctors, she died on the evening of May 13 becoming to forth MEK member to die shortly after transfer to Albania.
A few days before her death, Mr Struan Stevenson, the President of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq at the European Parliament, had visited her in hospital in Tirana. Mr Stevenson strongly condemned the six-year-sieges imposed on MEK memebrs in Camp Ashraf and Liberty by Maliki’s government.
Some 3,000 residents of Camp Ashraf were transferred to Camp Liberty in February 2012.
Since then the residents have repeatedly demanded that the United States, and the United Nations force the Iraqi government to transfer medical equipment belonging to the residents to Camp Liberty, but their request has been blocked by Iraq as part of the medical siege.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the coalition that MEK is a member, has repeatedly warned of the increasing and irreversible human damage caused by the medical siege of Camp Liberty.
The US government and the United Nations have been reminded of their commitments concerning the safety and security of Liberty residents, and calls have been for urgent action by the international community to end the tyrannical siege, secure free access of residents to medical services, and to transfer residents’ medical equipment from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty.
The medical blocaked also continues to take its toll in Camp Liberty. On April 28, another MEK member passed away due to Cardiac Arrest at the Iraqi clinic at Camp Liberty. Iraqi forces had deliberately delayed his transfer to hospital for treatment.
Mr. Mohammad Babaii died because of the inhumane medical blockade imposed on the residents of the camp by the Iraqi government and the lack of access to hospital and medical treatment.
MEK members were forcibly moved from their home of 26 years in Camp Ahraf to Camp Liberty prison according to two opinions by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.
Moreover, since their forcible relocation to this camp, MEK has come under four missile attacks, leading to the death of 14 people and the wounding of many.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) or (Mujahedeen-e Khalq MEK), the main opposition movement to the mullahs in Iran was founded on September 6, 1965.
The Shah feared the MEK because of its popularity and support for democracy and human rights. The same is true for Iran’s mullahs.
Recently a former cultural advisor to فاث Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who turned against him following the suppression of 2009 anti-regime protests has confirmed that more than 33,000 political prisoners mostly members of MEK were executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners which was carried out in span of few weeks.
The MEK reject this view and the cleric’s reactionary vision of Islam. The MEK’s comprehensive interpretation of Islam proved to be more persuasive, appealing, and successful than any attempt in the past.
The MEK views democracy as indispensable to Islam. “Islam blossoms only in the spirit of freedom and truthfulness,” the MEK maintains, “and therefore cannot trample upon the legitimate rights of the people.”
The MEK supports gender equality in all aspects, from choosing a spouse and marriage to inheritance, testimony, custody, employment, and election to the highest positions in government. It is because of Ms Maryam Rajavi’s advocacy that the issue of gender equality has become a main platform for the MEK.
