Behrooz Javid Tehrani – a student activist with no affiliation to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) – told how Iranian security agents tried to make him betray his beliefs while he was being held in solitary confinement in the summer of 2011.
The head interrogator of Evin prison – a man named Alavi – even offered him a passport and money to leave the country and pose as an opposition activist whilst actually smearing their name on the Internet on behalf of the mullahs.
Javid Tehrani who was released in December 2011, exposed the scam by Iran’s Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) on his Facebook page.
Tehrani said Alavi told him he was ‘wasting his life’ and listed the opportunities had lost due to his anti-regime activities. He then gave the following account of the interrogation:
Alavi: Behrooz do you want to go abroad?
Behrooz: (I was close to the end of my prison term, I was suspicious so I replied) Mr. Alavi! I do have a passport. And without a passport I cannot even go to the north of the country.
Alavi replied quickly: We will give you a passport.
Behrooz: I thought because they wanted to get rid of me I replied) I do not have any money to go abroad.
Alavi: We’ll give you money.
Behrooz: (I asked curiously) What should I do?
Alavi: Nothing special. The same thing you did during the past 15 years in Iran. Continue with your struggle and opposition (to the regime). (After a few seconds of silence he continued)… Just attack the PMOI (MEK) once a while. Is it clear enough?
A similar plot involved Caspian Makan, who was the fiancé of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman killed in 2009 protests in Iran.
When Caspian Makan was in detention Amnesty International said that Iranian regime had told his family that if he signs a “confession” saying that the MEK (PMOI) killed her, then he may be released from Evin Prison in Tehran.
A recent Pentagon report also confirmed the tactic used by the regime, stating: “MOIS uses its former members and/or people willing to cooperate with the ministry. They are sent to prison temporarily and become known as activists opposed to the Islamic Republic.
“After some time, no one questions their previous political activities; being a political prisoner is enough to be acknowledged as an opposition figure.
“Activists abroad may help get such a prisoner out of the country with the assistance of an international organization, or MOIS may send the prisoner abroad, calling him/her an ‘escaped dissenter’.
“This mechanism of releasing political prisoners to go abroad sows mistrust within the opposition in exile.”
The report also stated that “the Iranian government and its intelligence apparatus consider MEK the most serious dissident organization”.