Manza: On Tuesday, Albanian police searched a camp where members of an Iranian opposition movement were staying. According to local media, the group is thought to be planning cyberattacks against foreign institutions.
Thousands of members of the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), exiled opponents of the government in Tehran, have lived in the Ashraf 3 camp northwest of Tirana for the past ten years.
The PMOI reported that during clashes with the police, one person died and twelve of its members were hurt. However, the police in Albania, who published video of their operation, and the interior minister both denied guilt.
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According to media reports, hundreds of PMOI members attempted to fend off the police when they arrived at the camp. They claimed that the police had used pepper spray on them.
Interior Minister Blendi Cuci stated at a press conference that police did everything they could to prevent "incidents" and that no PMOI members were injured by police. "In no case (was) the death of a person on Tuesday in the Mujahedin camp... caused by police forces," he added, noting that officers were awaiting a forensics report on the passing of a man in his seventies.
The Mujahedin violence towards the police is intolerable," he declared. Police earlier claimed to have opened an investigation into the PMOI's claims.
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The police operation was reportedly a part of a cybercrime investigation, and officers reportedly seized computers. According to a statement from the police, they carried out their actions at the direction of the Albanian judiciary as a result of the group's "violation of agreements and commitments" made "when they settled in Albania solely for humanitarian purposes."
The PMOI left Iraq as part of a 2013 agreement supported by the UN and the US, and they relocated to other nations, including Albania, a backward Balkan nation in southeast Europe.
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At Ashraf 3, the biggest PMOI camp in the world, there are now about 2,800 of them. There were concerns about attacks in Albania because of the group's arrival.
Tirana severed diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2022 after accusing it of launching significant cyberattacks against Albania. The People's Mujahedin is prohibited in Tehran because it is regarded as a "terrorist group" since 1981.