Iraq-Iran: Human rights and political figures and jurists call for release of abducted PMOI members

NCRI, August 18 – In a press conference in Paris yesterday, human rights organizations, political personalities, lawyers and jurists demanded the release of two members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), who were abducted in Baghdad on Thursday, August 4, 2005.

They called on the Government of Iraq, the Multinational Force and all international human rights organizations to take urgent action to save the lives of the two abducted PMOI members.

NCRI, August 18 – In a press conference in Paris yesterday, human rights organizations, political personalities, lawyers and jurists demanded the release of two members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), who were abducted in Baghdad on Thursday, August 4, 2005.

They called on the Government of Iraq, the Multinational Force and all international human rights organizations to take urgent action to save the lives of the two abducted PMOI members.

Messrs. Hossein Pouyan, 47, and Mohammad-Ali Zahedi, 49, were abducted by the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Special Forces and taken to the Ministry.

Abolghassem Rezai, deputy senior secretary of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Yves Bonnet, former governor and head of France’s anti-terrorist organization, D.S.T., Mario Stasi, former President of Paris Bar Association, Gilles Paruelle former president of the Bar Association in the province of Val d’Oise, Prof. Marc Henzelin, professor of international law at the University of Geneva, François Serres, PMOI lawyer in France, Roland Calverie, representative of the Peace Movement in France, Renée Le Mignot, vice president of MRAP, Afshin Alavi, NCRI foreign affairs committee member and Abolhassen Mojtahedzadeh, a kidnapping victim in 1988 in Turkey, spoke at the press conference.

In his remarks, Mr. Rezai revealed that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Lt. Col. Abu-Zahra, who is also a veteran member of the Ninth Badr Corps, was the commander of the eight-member team that kidnapped Messrs. Pouyan and Zahedi. "Subsequent to the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and after the acknowledgment by Iraqi Foreign and Defense ministers that the PMOI enjoyed political refugee status in Iraq, the clerical regime has lost hope in the expulsion of the PMOI from Iraq. It has, therefore, again resorted to terrorism and kidnappings. It has found itself on the losing end legally, politically and internationally despite all the conspiracies it hatched against the PMOI," Mr. Rezai added.

He said, "This abduction occurred simultaneous with the rise in the regime’s meddling in Iraq, the dispatch of large weapons and ammunition cashes, the increase in the number of Revolutionary Guards, and allocation of a huge budget to install a puppet Islamic regime in that country. The Iranian regime has also infiltrated all centers of power by placing its agents in political, security and economic agencies as well as taking control of religious cities. At present, the most senior commanders of the IRGC’s Qods (Jerusalem) Force have taken charge in every Iraq city."

The jurists and lawyers underscored that the abducted PMOI members were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and called on the Multinational Force, especially the United States, to spare no effort in securing the release of the kidnapped Mojahedin. They stressed that the providing protection and upholding the rights stipulated in Geneva Convention is the responsibility of the Multinational Force. They also drew the attention of the Iraqi government to its international responsibilities and demanded that it should take an unequivocal position vis-à-vis this heinous crime.

Prof. Henzelin, who knew one of the victims personally, said he had asked Iraqi officials to intervene as quickly as possible.

Mr. Bonnet criticized European governments for their policy of appeasement and blacklisting the Mojahedin as well as their silence regarding this kidnapping. He urged them to condemn this crime.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 18, 2005