This is why #Iran judiciary accuses elite students of having linked up with opposition #MEK

Amid coronavirus pandemic across the country, wobbling at knees under harsh sanctions and in fear of a nationwide eruption, the totalitarian regime in Iran has begun a new wave of oppression against its people.

The Iranian regime’s judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaili eventually admitted the arrest of two elite students Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi from Tehran Sharif University after detaining them for 26 days.

Both arrested students won several medals of International Olympiads on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The regime judiciary accused detainees of having links with the main opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalgh (MEK), which the theocracy has an extreme sensitivity about.

The MEK advocates for regime change in Iran while having the support of American and British cross-party politicians and dignitaries.

In recent months, Iran Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested hundreds of other activists accusing them of spreading "rumor-mongering” about the pandemic in Iran.

Indeed, the regime's parliamentary election was a prelude to tightening repression. In an analysis before the regime’s parliamentary election, I explained that the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei aimed to strengthen the atmosphere of oppression in order to save his regime from an overnight mass protests.

Designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the IRGC seeks the following goals of accusing two elite students of having relations with the MEK.

First, send a message to its disillusioned repressive ideological forces

Mullahs are losing face inside Iran and abroad, which indeed disappoint the IRGC members over regional achievements in the past. The MEK and entire regime have two completely different social, political and religious views.

Today, the IRGC oppressive forces face a question of whether the export of revolution is going to be dead. It is fatal for a repressive ideological force to feel frustration. The MEK is active inside Iran but the regime is unable to dry them. Thus, the IRGC uses such accusations to alarm all its members that the old enemy is coming.

Second, warning to all activists and dissidents to be treated like the MEK

The IRGC views the world’s passive policy regarding the massacre of protesters in November last year, during which the regime killed up to 1,500 demonstrators, as a green light to continue the same path.

The regime harshly punishes anyone who even is interested in the MEK, let alone having relations. For example, during the 1988 massacre, thousands of the group's members and supporters were executed.The regime executed a man for providing financial aid to the MEK TV in 2014.

There are lots of other Iranian dissidents but the big question is why the regime accused these two elite students of having relations with the MEK.

For many years, both English and Farsi mainstream media inside Iran and abroad demonized the MEK to be involved in terrorism. The theocracy uses such demonization to justify torture, imprisonment and executions of dissidents.

For instance, in 2015 and 16, the regime produced at least 30 films, TV series and documentaries to spread false allegations and lies against the opposition in Iran’s society. This is apart from hundreds of websites and exhibitions across Iran to pursue the same goal.

The same story happens abroad. The mullahs' regime has partaken or orchestrated some false allegations against the MEK. The Der Spiegel in Germany published a report claiming that the MEK members in Albania practice slicing throats with knives, breaking hands, tearing eyes out, tearing apart the corners of the mouth.

A German court subsequently ordered Der Spiegel to pull passages from the article. The Hamburg state court said in its ruling that it would fine the magazine 250,000 euros (about $282,000) if the passages about a MEK camp in Albania weren’t removed.

The Intercept published a series of hit-pieces against the MEK quoting an Iranian intelligence officer that the group is influencing among youths in Iran. Indeed, the Intercept's report indirectly prepared the wider public for accusations of the recent arrest of two elite students Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi.

The New York Times went down the same path. Its London based journalist Patrick Kingsley wrote an article naming the MEK members as jihadists. Like the Der Spiegel's report, Mr Kingsley's article was translated to Farsi and published by many of the IRGC controlled websites inside Iran.

Today, the theocracy's judiciary accused students of carrying out sabotage operations and discovered explosive devices in their homes.

The Iranian regime is definitely responsible for prisoners’ health amid the virus crisis but Iran apologists and those who paved the regime’s way for such allegations should be blamed for their silence over arresting innocents by the IRGC.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran should interfere in this case and lead the international community to pressure mullahs to release political prisoners.

Hamid Bahrami is a former political prisoner from Iran. Living in Glasgow Scotland, Bahrami's analysis have appeared on Herald Scotland, The Hill, Al Arabiya English, Jerusalem Post, RadioFarda and the Daily Caller as his work cover’s the Middle East affairs. He tweets at @HaBahrami and blogs at analyzecom 

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