Iran – Ashraf Residents Moved; Third Day of Dry Hunger Strike

Attack on Camp Ashraf Residents by Iraqi Forces on June 28
Attack on Camp Ashraf Residents by Iraqi Forces on June 28

Stop Fundamentalism, October 4, 2009- National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a statement today said that Iraqi police has once again move the thirty six Mojahedin members it has in its custody to a new undisclosed location.

Attack on Camp Ashraf Residents by Iraqi Forces on June 28The members had been arrested late July after an attack by the Iraqi forces on camp Asharf north of Baghdad, where the PMOI members reside. 11 residents of the camp were killed and over 500 wounded during the attack.  Videos of the raid showing Iraqi police using chains, axes, and bulldozers to attack the unarmed civilians of this camp were distributed on YouTube and outraged the international community.

 

The detainees were incarcerated for two months in Khalis where a Judge ruled three times that there are no charges against them and they should go free. Yet the Iraqi police refused to release them and took them from Khalis to Baghdad instead.

 

NCRI reports that the thirty six were beaten violently during the move and warns that their lives are in danger and holds Al-Maliki’s government directly responsible.

Amnesty international also released a statement on first of October, calling on Nuri Al-Maliki government to unconditionally release the detainees.

Residents of camp Ashraf were declared to be “Protected Persons” under United Nations Fourth Geneva Conventions after the Iraq war.  According to these conventions exerting any harm to them or their forced repatriation to Iran would be considered a war crime.

The 36 captives who have refused to eat for the last 66 days have also stopped drinking for the past 3 days since their transfer to Baghdad.

The Iranian officials have praised Iraq’s attack on Ashraf residents and called for their persecution and punishment.