Karim Haqqi Moni

 AKA – Karim Haqi, Karim Haqgi Moni, Karim Haqqi Moni, Karim Haghi Moni

Karim Haqqi was likely recruited by the MOIS in late 1994.  He had been a member of the National Liberation Army in Iraq before the Gulf War.  In 1991, Haqqi complained he no longer could remain at Camp Ashraf due to physical reasons and asked to be transferred to Baghdad.  The PMOI accommodated the request and helped him and his family resettle in the capital city and later provided assistance when they moved to France in January 1993.1

A short while afterward the family moved once again, this time to the Netherlands, where Haqqi applied for asylum.  His last communication with the PMOI was in May 1993.2

In early 1995, Haqqi began to make regular contact with a MOIS agent named Maghsoudi at the Iranian Embassy in the Netherlands.  Several months later - and three years after leaving the PMOI - Haqqi publicly claimed he had been imprisoned and tortured by the PMOI.  He also falsely stated he had been a member of the PMOI for 15 years and was the “former head of personal protection of Maryam Rajavi."3 

UN Meeting

In January 1996, Karim Haqqi helped gathered together former PMOI members who later became MOIS agents for a meeting in Geneva with Professor Maurice Danby Capithorne, UN Special Representative of Iran.  The meeting's objective, according to Jamshid Tafreshi, who later defected from the MOIS, was to "accuse the Mojahedin of having prisons and committing torture, execution and violation of human rights...."4

Payvand

Karim Haqqi worked for Payvard, a front organization for the MOIS in the Netherlands.  Jamshid Tafreshi said in April 1996 "Karim Haqqi met with Saeed Emami in Singapore and Payvard publications was used as a cover to receive money for members of the network."5

MOIS Network

On the afternoon on February 1, 2000, an agent from the Dutch Internal Security Service paid a visit to Karim Haqqi at his residence in Elst and demanded to talk with him. As explained in a Dear Colleagues letter by Paulo Casaca MEP, Co-Chair or Friends of a Free Iran, the Dutch Internal Security Service had previously "interrogated him on several occasions and warned him about his contacts with and receiving money from the MOIS."6  The agent read off a list of names and said Haqqi and the others were part of a large network in Europe that was in regular contact with the Iranian regime.  The agent also said the Service knew the MOIS funded Payvand.  The agent told Haqqi "It would suit you better to stop this kind of work and go after your normal business and think about the future of your children."7

Human Rights Watch Report

Karim Haqqi was interviewed for the 2005 report on the MeK by Human Rights Watch.  Haqqi fabricated the story that he, his wife, and their six-month old child were confined in a building for six months.  He makes no mention of his relocation to Baghdad or France and instead alleges he was sent to a refugee camp outside the city of Ramadi called al-Tash and eventually received refugee status from Holland.8  He also lied when claiming his wife, Mohtaram Babai, was tortured in a Mojahedin prison and died after her release. 

According to Jamshid Tafrishi, a friend of Haqqi, Babai committed suicide after a relationship Haqqi had with another woman became public.  She felt shamed and disgraced.  A few days later she was found hanging from the ceiling in the bathroom of her residence.9

World Trade Center Bombing

Haqqi falsely alleged the PMOI was involved in the 1993 bombing of the WTC in New York City in 1993.  He said "Ramzi Yusef, who bombed the WTC building in New York in 1993, seems to have also planted a bomb in Mashad on the orders of the PMOI to kill dozens of people.” Haqqi also is quoted in an article on the Mahdis website alleging Saddam Hussein had hidden Iraq’s WMDs in PMOI camps for seven years.  He said the WMDs were located on a base called Simorg, which he claimed UN inspectors had never been allowed to inspect.10

Iranian Agents in the US?

In October 2005, the Iran Policy Committee issued a warning that Iranian intelligence agents had entered the US to spread disinformation.  One of the main agents identified by IPC was Karim Haqqi, a "veteran Iranian intellence agent" who "succeeded in duping Human Rights Watch...into fronting as a mouthpiece for Iranian intelligence.11