Ashraf attacked – Statement 97
Iraq's chief prosecutor on 36 camp Ashraf hostages: "They should have been released by now … We have issued orders to all police stations to release them wherever they are”
Their Lawyers file complaints for continued detention
NCRI – “Iraq's chief prosecutor, Ghadanfar Hamoud, issued a blanket order for police to release 36 members of an Iranian opposition group who were detained during a raid on their camp in northern Iraq in July. The People's Mujahedeen of Iran has claimed Iraqi security forces have refused to free the men even though they have not been charged by judicial authorities,” Associated press reported on Wednesday.
The report quoted Iraq's chief prosecutor as saying: “(The detainees) should have been released by now … We have issued orders to all police stations to release them wherever they are.”
The Khlais city’s prosecutor also told the 36 PMOI members who are on hunger strike that the Sunday’s release order is legal and it cannot be appealed, therefore, they should be released immediately and their continued detention has nothing to do with Iraq’s judicial system.
On Tuesday the judge who delivered the decision told AFP: "I released them; I said that they should go back to Camp Ashraf.”
However, on the contrary to explicit statements by the judge, Iraqi chief prosecutor and Khalis prosecutor, Brigadier Ali Hussein al-Shemari, Dialya province police chief said in a statement that “the relevant authorities in charge of the 36 People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) member detainees were not satisfied with the Khalis court verdict, therefore ‘the detainees will not be released until the court of appeal settles the issue.’” (Aknews.com, September 30, 2009)
According to Aknews.com Shemari was surprised by the extent in which their detention has been covered by the news media and claimed that the detainees were involved in the killing of Iraqi people and were in terrorist lists.
It appears that in the present situation in Iraq, a single policeman subservient to the Iranian regime can interfere so blatantly in judicial and political decisions. The Council of the Diyala Province, concerned with this situation, recently convened to discuss dismissing Shemari. Most of the political groups in the provincial council agreed that the police chief must resign from his post. In a report published today, Al-Zaman Iraqi daily on “the news indicating the removal of Diyala police commander,” wrote: “A high level security delegation by the Interior Ministry has been dispatched to Diyala in order to evaluate the security situation and find out the facts about some security plans in the province… and there is a possibility that the police commander may be removed from his post or relocated.”
While the Iraqi Justice Department has declared the continued detention of the 36 abducted PMOI members as unlawful, and since Shemari receives his orders from the Prime Minister’s office, it is now quite clear that the aim is nothing but to transfer the 36 to Baghdad and fabrication of baseless legal cases against them to please the religious dictatorship in Iran.
The Iranian Resistance reiterates that it holds the Iraqi Government and Shemari accountable for any harm to the 36 abducted residents of Ashraf and will pursue this through international bodies and competent judicial organs. In the meantime, lawyers of the abductees have filed a complaint against their continued unlawful detention.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 30, 2009
