On March 9, the criminal Mullah Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Justice Minister of the clerical regime, hideously demanded the extradition of PMOI members stationed in Camp Liberty to the murderers ruling Iran. He said: “The handover of PMOI members to Iran does not need a request, but if the Iraqi Justice Minister has made such a suggestion, we will again lodge an official request to turn them over to our tribunals. These individuals are criminals and guilty and they must be handed over to our courts so that we would deal with their offenses and this matter does not need a special request by us … these PMOI members should be dealt their punishment.” (Fars news agency affiliated with the IRGC).
Statements by Pour-Mohammadi, one of the most bloodthirsty officials of the clerical regime and one of the main officials responsible for the massacre of 30000 PMOI members and freedom-fighters in prison in 1988, indicate the ominous intents of the mullahs’ regime and its subordinate government in Iraq to carry out a great massacre in Camp Liberty. This is a warning to the U.S. and UN officials for immediate and effective action to protect the Camp Liberty residents.
On its way to its demise and at the peak of its lethal crises, especially the spread of social protests, and in order to terrify the people and intensify the atmosphere of terror, the religious fascism ruling Iran deems the massacre of the PMOI members who inspire the struggle of the Iranian people as its only way out. The clerical regime plans to overshadow these criminal measures by abusing the nuclear negotiations to earn the silence of the United States and the United Nations so as to incur the minimum cost for its atrocities.
On March 2, Iraq’s Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari had announced: “According to an agreement signed between Iran and Iraq on the swap of prisoners, Iran can ask for the extradition of the MKO members.” (The website of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) – March 2)
“The Iraqi justice minister noted that if Iran asks for the extradition of MKO members, Iraq will hand them over to Iran.”(Fars News Agency, 2 March 2014)
Immediately, representatives of the residents, lawyers, parliamentary delegations, and human rights defenders called for a resolute and unambiguous reaction by U.S. and UN on these unlawful statements, but their ignorance resulted in the fact that a week later, the head henchman Pour-Mohammadi is now emboldened to repeat such criminal remarks.
On March 2, the representative of residents wrote to the Secretary-General and the U.S. officials: “…the residents’ and their representatives’ repeated warnings throughout 2013 about the plots of the Iranian regime and the Government of Iraq for carrying out bloodbath in Ashraf and Liberty were ignored and no preemptive measure was taken in this regard. Therefore, on behalf of the Liberty residents and in order to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe, I ask you… referring the case to the Security Council.”
On behalf of the lawyers of Camp Liberty residents, the International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf (ICJDA) with 8000 members in the United States and Europe, in a letter on March 4 to the Secretary-General, the U.S. officials, Lady Ashton, and foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany warned that “These wholly unlawful statements are in blatant breach of international covenants, including the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture, and many other provisions of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the International Human Rights Law. These statements are also in flagrant breach of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Government of Iraq and the United Nations on 25 December 2011 that guarantees the safety and security of Ashraf and Camp Liberty residents until their transfer to third countries.” This warning underlined that these remarks are “a serious offense liable to prosecution by international bodies” and stipulated that “the residents of Camp Liberty are all protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. As accentuated by numerous statements by the High Commissioner for Refugees, they are all refugees or asylum-seekers that enjoy international protection.”
Mr. Struan Stevenson, President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq, wrote in a letter to the U.S. government and the UN officials: Statements by Iraqi Justice Minister “are made while numerous reports indicate that the Iranian and Iraqi governments have been in close contact and in close negotiations” discussing the “Iranian full support of third term premiership of Maliki”, “Iranian assistance to Maliki for suppression of the Iraqi people’s uprising, especially in the Al-Anbar province”, and “In return, the Iraqi government has promised to fully support the regime of Bashar Assad, to provide special economic privileges to the Iranian regime, to exert pressure and continue to harass Camp Liberty residents, and make all efforts to deport, arrest or extradite the residents of the camp to Iran.”
In this letter, Mr. Struan Stevenson requested that in order to prevent a greater humanitarian catastrophe, the case of Camp Liberty be referred by the United States and the United Nations to the Security Council so that through binding decisions it guarantee the security and safety of Camp Liberty residents, provide minimum security provisions for them, secure the release of the seven Ashraf hostages, and conduct an independent and impartial inquiry into the September 1, 2013 atrocity in Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
