Ashraf attacked – Statement 96
Abducted Ashraf residents go on dry hunger strike against their forced displacement to undisclosed locations
Court ordered release of 36 abductees for third time but Iraqi Government is defiant
NCRI – On Sunday, September 27, the judge at the court in Khalis issued a definitive verdict to release 36 PMOI members held as hostages. The judge dismissed all charges against them pressed by the Iraqi authorities. The judge told the detainees of the court’s decision on Monday morning but the Iraqi Government is unlawfully refusing to implement the ruling. This is the third verdict by the court ordering the release of the detainees. The Iraqi Government’s defiance of the court order which is to please the Iranian regime has aroused widespread international protests.
Ashraf attacked – Statement 96
Abducted Ashraf residents go on dry hunger strike against their forced displacement to undisclosed locations
Court ordered release of 36 abductees for third time but Iraqi Government is defiant
NCRI – On Sunday, September 27, the judge at the court in Khalis issued a definitive verdict to release 36 PMOI members held as hostages. The judge dismissed all charges against them pressed by the Iraqi authorities. The judge told the detainees of the court’s decision on Monday morning but the Iraqi Government is unlawfully refusing to implement the ruling. This is the third verdict by the court ordering the release of the detainees. The Iraqi Government’s defiance of the court order which is to please the Iranian regime has aroused widespread international protests.
The International Committee in Defense of Ashraf, International Committee of In Search of Justice, Arab-Islamic Committee in Defense of Ashraf, international human rights personalities and organizations in various countries across the world, parliamentary committees in Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands expressed their protests immediately by writing to the U.S. officials and the Iraqi President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. They called for immediate implementation of the court order to release the detainees.
Based on received reports, the Iraqi government is planning to illegally transfer the hostages to undisclosed locations in Baghdad under the direction of Kazemi Qomi, who is a commander of the terrorist Qods Force and ambassador of the ruling dictatorship in Iran to Baghdad, in a conspiratorial move. The 36 hostages, members of the PMOI, have announced that they would in such circumstances refuse not only food but also any liquids.
The Iraqi court in the city of Khalis ordered the release of the 36 PMOI members on August 23, 2009 (37 days ago). All of them, however, have continued to be held in detention on bogus charges of illegal entry to Iraq 23 years ago. The court again confirmed its ruling for their release on September 16, 2009 but again their release was prevented. Finally, the judge issued a final order for their release yesterday on September 28, 2009. It thus became clear that the allegations were unfounded from the start and were meant for covering up the crimes against humanity that took place in Ashraf.
The Iranian Resistance while recalling the abduction of two PMOI members, Ali-Mohammad Zahedi and Hossein Pooyan, on August 2005 in Baghdad, whom were transferred to the Iraqi Interior Ministry and later disappeared by terrorist Qods Force, warns of Iranian regime’s intention for carrying out similar scenario.
The Iranian Resistance calls on U.S. Forces to act immediately, as their obligations requires and take back the 36 Ashraf residents from the Iraqi Government which has been holding them without any justification. Also the Iranian Resistance calls on the United Nations Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nation’s Assistance Mission for Iraq to act urgently.
The 36 hostages who are on their 64th day of hunger strike were wounded during the attack and seven of them were unconscious at the time of their abduction. According to physicians some of them have reached the point of no return due to injuries and long hunger strike that has followed.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 29, 2009
