KHALES – Iraqi authorities have refused to allow 36 Iranian dissidents seized in a July raid to return to their base despite a court ruling they must be released, a judicial official said on Tuesday.
The members of the People's Mujahedeen [PMOI/MEK], an exiled opposition group, were arrested by Iraqi police during a raid on Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province north of Baghdad, which left 11 camp residents dead.
"I released them; I said that they should go back to Camp Ashraf," Judge Ali al-Timimi told Agence France-Presse, referring to a decision he delivered on Sunday.
The group was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran. It has subsequently fought to oust the clerical regime that took power in the 1979 Islamic revolution, using Iraq as a base.