Page "People's Mujahedin of Iran" Paragraph 27

Following the 1988 military defeat by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Rajavi's leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike, according to the report.

One MEK defector's memoirindicated that Rajavi claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, ( the Mahdi or Twelfth Imam of Shia Islam ).

In order to better cement their relationship with their leader, and hence ultimately their Messiah, Rajavi then instructed his followers to divorce their spouses.

The group had already established a practice of self criticism, under which members were asked to undergo their own personal " ideological revolution " by confessing personal inadequacies in cultlike confession sessions.

Human Rights Watch stated that the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization.

Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners necks and drag them along the ground.

One witness told investigators: " Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks — their head and neck as big as a pillow.

" In a statement accompanying its investigative report, Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch expert on the Middle East, commented: