On Thursday, April 7th, 2016, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the bloody April 8th, 2011 attack by Iraqi forces on defenseless Camp Ashraf, the home to Iranian opposition members in Iraq, two groups of Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS/VEVAK) agents in the cities of Tehran and Karaj, totaling 30 agents, attacked the family home of martyrs Akbar and Mahdiye Madadzadeh in Karaj, arresting two of the guests in this house.

 April 8th massacre of Camp Ashraf residents

April 8 marks the 5th anniversary of the massacre of Iranian opposition activists in Camp Ashraf by the Iraqi Army on the orders of then Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the behest of the Iranian regime. On that day, Mahdiye, 32, and her brother Akbar, 34, were slain alongside 34 other members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Ashraf city (PMOI/MEK).
Eight unarmed and defenseless women, all members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), were either shot at close range or crushed to death under the wheels of armored vehicles when Iraqi forces stormed Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, on April 8, 2011.
The Iraqi army assault on the defenseless camp residents last for six hours with armored vehicles’ heavy machineguns and snipers used to murder and injure the PMOI (MEK) members.
In all, 36 PMOI (MEK) members were massacred on that day. The group is the main enemy of the mullahs who rule Tehran today.
Hundreds of unarmed and defenseless Camp Ashraf residents were also severely wounded.
The brave PMOI members in the camp captured harrowing scenes of the brutal attack on film. The shocking images stirred international condemnation of the brutal massacre.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time Navi Pillay condemned the Iraqi attack and said there must be a full, independent and transparent inquiry, and any person found responsible for use of excessive force should be prosecuted. No proper inquiry ever took place and no one was ever held to account in Iraq.
Many of those involved in the massacre continue to suppress the Iranian refugees now in Camp Liberty, Baghdad.

MOIS/VEVAK warned Madadzadeh family, “… not to hold any ceremony marking their anniversary. You intended to hold a martyrs ceremony, and thus we attacked the house.”
The MOIS/VEVAK agents stayed in the house until 11 pm, viciously searching all personal items and other belongings in the house.

The conditions of two older women, Mother Madadzadeh and Mrs. Kobra Amir Khizi, were reported dire due to psychological harassments and constant pressures by the MOIS/VEVAK agents.
State agents also arrested Karim Kohandel and his wife, A’zam Madadzadeh (sister of Mahdiye and Akbar), along with their 13-year-old child. The three were transferred to the Karaj Intelligence Department. Although all three have been released.

According to local residents and neighbors the mullahs’ MOIS/VEVAK agents had the home and all who visited them under surveillance for three days prior to April 7th, controlling all their commuting. They had even broken a closed-circuit camera installed above the front door in order to leave no traces of the agents’ commuting in and out of the house.