Bomb suspects ‘were anti-Iran exiles’
Bangkok Post – July 19, 2012
Four Iranians suspected of involvement
in a botched bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok were
members of an exiled Iranian opposition group which wanted the incident
to reflect badly on Teheran, Syedsulaiman Husaini, Shia leader of
Thailand, said on Sunday.
Iranian terror suspects pictured with prostitutes in Pattaya.
He claimed the four belonged to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation
(also known as MEK, MKO and the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of
Iran, or PMOI) which aims to overthrow the current Iranian government.
The MEK has been on the US Department of State’s list of foreign terrorist organisations since 1977.
Thai authorities and security agencies
were not familiar with the group, said Mr Syedsulaima, who is also
director of the Islamic studies centre at Al Mahdi Institute and former
president of the Iran University Alumni Association.
The Islamic scholar said the bomb
incident was unlikely to be the work of the Iranian government as
speculated because Bangkok and Teheran have good bilateral relations.
A secret report by Iran’s security
agency also indicated that the Iran nationals linked with Bangkok’s
latest bomb plot were members of the MEK, reports said.
Formed in the 1960s, the organisation
participated in Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution that replaced the
country’s pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with a Shi’ite
Islamist regime led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The MEK, whose ideology
mixes Marxism and Islam, was expelled from Iran two years later after
trying to stage an armed uprising against Khomeini.
