NCRI – The body of Camp Liberty resident Bardia Amir Mostofian, that was held hostage for 328 days by the Iraqi Prime Ministry, was finally buried on Monday February 11 in holy city of Karbala in Iraq, but without a full religious ritual.
His body was held by the Ashraf Committee of Iraqi Prime Ministry at the behest of the Iranian regime’s embassy in Iraq in order to psychologically torture Camp Ashraf residents. Iraqi suppressive forces then prevented parts of the customary religious rituals to be held at the time of his burial.
Mr Mostofian, a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), was recognized as a Protected Person under the Fourth Geneva Convention and received his “Protected Person” identification issued by the U.S. government in 2004.
Bardia was among the third group of Ashraf residents arriving at Camp Liberty following 48 hours of intensive body search, inspections and loading, coupled with harassment and humiliation by the Iraqi forces. Iraqi criminals such as Major Ahmad Khozair and Captain Haydar Azab, the perpetrators of 2009 and 2011 massacres in Camp Ashraf respectively, were involved in the harassment.
Bardia died an hour after arriving in Camp Liberty, shortly before the turn of Iranian New Year in March 2011. The Iraqi physician found the cause of death to be cardiac arrest due to insomnia and fatigue. His death could have prevented if the Ashraf residents had not been put under such excessive pressure by Martin Kobler during the displacement.
On the pretext that Bardia did not have immediate family in Iraq, the Ashraf Committee – responsible for the suppression of Ashraf residents – prevented the release of his body. Mr Tahmoores Mostofian, Bardia’s brother and a resident of Germany, went to Iraq’s Embassy to apply for a visa to travel to Iraq but Iraqi officials did not let him to enter the embassy. He gave a power of attorney to one of the residents for receiving his brother’s body for burial. But when he went to the Iraqi embassy accompanied by his German lawyer to certify his power of attorney, neither he nor his lawyer was let in.
Mr Mostofian inevitably was forced to hire Iraqi lawyers. In this regard, Iraqi lawyers and a representative of the residents went 35 and 20 times respectively to Baghdad’s Kerekh investigative court. A representative of the residents went 20 times to the police station to no avail. Representatives of the residents held 50 meetings with the Iraqi government and Iraqi officers, most of them taking place at the presence of UNAMI representatives and observers, to call for the release and burial of Bardia’s body.
Almost daily, the residents raised the issue in their contacts and communications with the UNAMI and the US embassy officials in Baghdad. Liberty residents and their international, Iraqi and Arab representatives, lawyers and legal advisers called on American, Iraqi and UN officials in some 300 letters for their immediate action.
Throughout this period, UNAMI refrained from taking any serious measures in this regard, and even refused to condemn this inhuman act.
Finally Bardia’s body was released 328 days after his death. This was an inhumane, un-Islamic and an unprecedented psychological torture, which could only have originated from the ruthlessness of the religious fascism in Iran and its agents in Iraq and it deserves forceful condemnation.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 12, 2013
NCRI – The body Camp Liberty resident Bardia Amir Mostofian, that was held hostage for 328 days by the Iraqi Prime Ministry, was finally buried on Monday February 11 in holy city of Karbala in Iraq, but without a full religious ritual.
His body was held by the Ashraf Committee of Iraqi Prime Ministry at the request of the Iranian regime’s embassy in Iraq in order to psychologically torture Camp Ashraf residents. Iraqi suppressive forces then prevented parts of the customary religious rituals to be held at the time of his burial.
Mr Mostofian, a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), was recognized as a Protected Person under the Fourth Geneva Convention and received his “Protected Person” identification issued by the U.S. government in 2004.
Bardia was among the third group of Ashraf residents arriving at Camp Liberty following 48 hours of intensive body search, inspections and loading, coupled with harassment and humiliation by the Iraqi forces. Iraqi criminals such as Major Ahmad Khozair and Captain Haydar Azab, the perpetrators of 2009 and 2011 massacres in Camp Ashraf respectively, were involved in the harassment.
Bardia died an hour after arriving in Camp Liberty, shortly before the turn of Iranian New Year in March 2011. The Iraqi physician found the cause of death to be cardiac arrest due to insomnia and fatigue. His death could have prevented if the Ashraf residents had not been put under such excessive pressure by Martin Kobler during the displacement.
On the pretext that Bardia did not have immediate family in Iraq, the Ashraf Committee – responsible for the suppression of Ashraf residents – prevented the release of his body. Mr Tahmoores Mostofian, Bardia’s brother and a resident of Germany, went to Iraq’s Embassy to apply for a visa to travel to Iraq but Iraqi officials did not let him to enter the embassy. He gave a power of attorney to one of the residents for receiving his brother’s body for burial. But when he went to the Iraqi embassy accompanied by his German lawyer to certify his power of attorney, neither he nor his lawyer was let in.
Mr Mostofian inevitably was forced to hire Iraqi lawyers. In this regard, Iraqi lawyers and a representative of the residents went 35 and 20 times respectively to Baghdad’s Kerekh investigative court. A representative of the residents went 20 times to the police station to no avail. Representatives of the residents held 50 meetings with the Iraqi government and Iraqi officers, most of them taking place at the presence of UNAMI representatives and observers, to call for the release and burial of Bardia’s body.
Almost daily, the residents raised the issue in their contacts and communications with the UNAMI and the US embassy officials in Baghdad. Liberty residents and their international, Iraqi and Arab representatives, lawyers and legal advisers called on American, Iraqi and UN officials in some 300 letters for their immediate action.
Throughout this period, UNAMI refrained from taking any serious measures in this regard, and even refused to condemn this inhuman act.
Finally Bardia’s body was released 328 days after his death. This was an inhumane, un-Islamic and an unprecedented psychological torture, which could only have originated from the ruthlessness of the religious fascism in Iran and its agents in Iraq and it deserves forceful condemnation.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 12, 2013
