Preceded by Position established Name Massoud Rajavi Religion Islam | ||
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Preceded by Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen and Ali Asghar Badizadegan Born 18 August 1948 (age 76) Tabas, Iran ( 1948-08-18 ) Political party People's Mujahedin of Iran Spouse Firouzeh Bani Sadr (m. 1982–1984), Ashraf Rabii (m. 1978–1982) Children Mostafa Rajavi, Ashraf Abrishamchi Siblings Kazem Rajavi, Monireh Rajavi Similar People | ||
Massoud rajavi
Massoud Rajavi (Persian: مسعود رجوی, born August 18, 1948 – disappeared March 13, 2003) is one of the two leaders of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), alongside his wife Maryam Rajavi. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq. He disappeared in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and it is not known whether he is alive or dead. Rajavi has been wanted by Iraq since 2010 for crimes against humanity.
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MKO LEADER Massoud Rajavi
Biography
Rajavi joined the MEK when he was 20 and a law student at the University of Tehran. He graduated with a degree in political law. Rajavi and the MEK actively opposed the Shah of Iran and participated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
During the Pahlavi dynasty, Rajavi was arrested by SAVAK and sentenced to death. Due to efforts by his brother, Kazem Rajavi, and various Swiss lawyers and professors, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. He was released from prison during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Upon his release, Rajavi assumed leadership of the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
When Iran’s first presidential election took place in 1980, Rajavi nominated himself and his own People's Mujahedin of Iran. He was endorsed by the People's Fedai, the National Democratic Front, the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, Komala and the League of Iranian Socialists. He was disqualified in the elections by Ayatollah Khomeini on the grounds that 'those who did not endorse the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran could not be trusted to abide by that constitution'.
In 1981, when Ayatollah Khomeini dismissed President Bani Sadr and a new wave of arrests and executions started in the country, Rajavi and Bani Sadr fled to Paris from Tehran's airbase. In 1986 Rajavi moved to Iraq and set up a base on the Iranian border. Rajavi was welcomed in Baghdad by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Marriages
Rajavi married fellow MEK member Ashraf Rabiei in summer 1980. Rabiei was widow of another MEK member killed in 1976, Ali-Akbar Nabavi-Nuri, whom she married in 1975. His second wife was Abolhassan Banisadr's daughter Firouzeh. Their marriage of state took place in October 1982 and the couple divorced in 1984. Rajavi married to Maryam Qajar Azodanlu (later known as Maryam Rajavi) in 1985, who was already married to one of his close associates Mehdi Abrishamchi and divorced her husband in order to marry Rajavi.
Iraqi 2010 arrest warrant
In July 2010, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal issued an arrest warrant for 39 MEK members, including Massoud Rajavi, for crimes against humanity committed while suppressing the 1991 uprisings in Iraq. The court prosecuted them in 2007, when the chief prosecutor declared that there is strong evidence for the case, including video tapes showing MEK leaders meeting with senior Iraqi Intelligence Service officials and receiving money to implement orders. Back in 2005, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan official asked for arrest and trial of Rajavi based on his organization's documentary evidence of the involvement.
Fate
Following the American invasion of Iraq, Massoud Rajavi disappeared. In his absence, Maryam Rajavi has assumed his responsibilities as leader of the MEK. In 2011 NCRI posted an article which described Rajavi as being "in hiding", though this has not been independently verified. On July 6, 2016, at a large gathering of MEK members in Paris, the former head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, referred to Rajavi as the "late Massoud Rajavi" twice in a speech.