NCRI – Iranian Resistance issues a warning regarding the health of Mr. Akbar Shafeqat, an Ashraf resident suffering from cancer, who has been waiting for radiotherapy treatment for more than seven months. It requests immediate intervention by the United Nations and the U.S. forces for the removal of the inhumane medical siege on Ashraf.
Medical appointments of Mr. Shafeqat for radiotherapy have time and again been cancelled by Omar Khaled, director of the torture center called “The New Iraq Hospital” under various pretexts. Finally, after seven months, on Monday, March 28, Mr. Shafeqat was sent to a hospital in Baghdad. After examining him, the specialist physician told the patient that due to delays in his treatment his condition is now critical and in the next 30 days he needs twenty times radiotherapy.
The cancer of Mr. Shafeqat who has spent 10 years in prisons of the clerical dictatorship under all kinds of torture sharply progressed due to the two-year medical siege. Each time that he followed up on his chemotherapy with the New Iraq Hospital, they told him that since you are suffering from cancer you will finally die and therefore, there is no need for chemotherapy.
Prior to the transfer of protection of Ashraf to the Iraqi forces, residents’ medical treatments were resolved in their direct referral to Iraqi medical centers at their own expense. However, since the beginning of 2009, forces under the command of Maliki have been imposing an inhumane medical siege on Ashraf which has already resulted in the death of two patients in December of 2010.
On March 17, 2011, the National Court of Spain, in its writ, acknowledged that the continuing psychological torture by 240 loudspeakers, the severe medical siege, and the tyrannical and inhumane siege imposed on Ashraf for over two years are severe breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention; it subsequently summoned Ali Yasseri and Sadeq Muhammad Kadhim, head and director of the Ashraf Suppression Committee, and LTC Nazar and LT Haydar Azab Mashi, elements of suppression of Ashraf, to court for crimes against the international community.
The Iranian Resistance holds the Iraqi government and Maliki himself responsible for any harm on Ashraf residents caused by this tyrannical siege. This siege is among the most flagrant crimes against humanity whose perpetrators should be pursued and punished. In addition, the Iranian Resistance calls for immediate action by the UN Secretary General, special representative of the Secretary General and UNAMI, the Ambassador and the forces of the United States in Iraq to end this inhumane siege and guarantee free access of Ashraf residents to medical services.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 29, 2011
