NEWS))))))
Iran: Riot in Gohardasht prison
The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 26, 2009 that a group of prisoners took control of Ward 1 of Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on Sunday during a riot against appalling prison conditions and the harsh treatments by the authorities. The prisoners clashed with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disarming two of the guards, Mohsen Khalesi and Marjani, before taking control of the Ward. Other prison guards and torturers fled the premises.Angry prisoners managed to get hold of the keys to solitary cells and releasing all the inmates. The riot continued until 21:00 local time.Subsequently, the prison’s special guards headed by Ali Haj Kazem, the head of Gohardasht prison surrounded the Ward, attacked defenseless prisoners using teargas and finally took back the control of the Ward. There is no news on the conditions of prisoners after their long battle with prison guards. The Ward 1 that houses solitary confinements is known as “dog house” because of harsh conditions and barbaric tortures deployed there. The prisoners are subjected to humiliation, insults and various physical tortures such as hunger and rape and are facing gradual death in the appalling living conditions. Every year a dozen of them commit suicide. The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to condemn torture of prisoners and to assign a Special Rapporteur to investigate the deteriorating state of human rights in Iran.
Iranian Workers’ protests against non-payments
According to National Council of Resistance of Iran workers at Ahvaz Pipe Mills Co. held a gathering for the second day running on Wednesday October 21 outside the governorates office to protest against non-payment of their wages and bonuses for the past 10 months. Protestors were chanting, “Living in Iran is our indisputable rights,” “Government of coup d’état, resign, resign,” “Death or justice,” “With God’s help, victory is close, death to the deceitful government” and “We will not surrender to humiliation.” Members of public joined the workers in their protest. On the same day, workers at Mahyaman factory in Mourcheh Khourt Industrial Zone of Esfahan staged a protest against ten months delay in payment of their wages and bonuses. They had gathered outside Esfahan governorates office. Other labour protests in various cities are as follows:- Sacked workers in Govah Company, manufacturing heavy tools and machineries, protested against being unfairly laid off;- More than 200 workers in Khorramshahr bus line company protested against four months delay in payment of their wages and bonuses;- Workers at long distance communications devices’ factory in Shiraz held a protest against delay in payment of their wages for the past eight months and the wages due to them since 2007. Workers in Wagon Pars of Arak and Haft Tapeh sugar cane factory in Khuzestan province have also been protesting against delay of two months in payment of their wages. These are part of the activities of deprived workers in Iran in protest against their state of living and the hardship that their families are going through.The Iranian Resistance calls on all international trade union movements to condemn anti-labour measures in Iran under the clerical rule and support the workers just demands.
UN nuclear inspectors head to Iran to visit site
A team of U.N. inspectors went to Iran on Saturday to visit a recently revealed nuclear site, amid new efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency experts are slated to examine an unfinished uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes. Disclosure of its existence last month by the National Council of Resistance of Iran raised international suspicion over the extent and aim of the country’s nuclear program.
Monday, October 19, 2009
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German police arrest man for selling missile technology to Iranian regime
German police have arrested a man and are investigating two others in connection with the export of a high- technology furnace to help Iranian regime’s missile builders, federal prosecutors said Saturday. They said Mohsen A, aged 52, had been remanded in custody on Friday on suspicion of breaching German laws that restrict exports of militarily useful items. Iran is under a UN embargo. Police raided premises in four German states in connection with the July 2007 sale of the 1.4-million-euro (2.1-million-dollar) sale of the furnace. Investigators believe the furnace could have been used to make missile launcher components. A German aged 64 and a dual Iranian-German national aged 49 were also under suspicion, the prosecutors in the southern city of Karlsruhe said. The suspects were accused of exporting a second furnace in July 2008 using a front company in Asia.
More suppressive measures against university students in Iran
The Iranian regime has intensified pressure on the students of the Universities of Babol (northern Iran) and Kermanshah (western Iran).According to reports, the suppressive disciplinary committee of the Kermanshah University has deprived 100 students from 1-3 semesters of education and has convicted some of the students for pecuniary fine. At Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, government agents have not only sentenced some students to imprisonment and deprivation from education, but they have severely intensified the security measures at the university.The appointed president of the university has repeatedly summoned families of the active students and threatened and intimidated them.
Chants of "God is great" cost 2 to 5 year imprisonment
The Iranian regime recently has declared imprisonment for chanting “God is great” on rooftops at nights in Iran. Towards the end of the Shah’s regime in 1979, people would go on their rooftops to chant “God is great” and “Down with Shah”. These days people of Iran use the same tactics to fight the dictatorship ruling their country. This is the first time that the Iranian regime officially issues such a strong punishment for calling the God, great.
German police arrest man for selling missile technology to Iranian regime
German police have arrested a man and are investigating two others in connection with the export of a high- technology furnace to help Iranian regime’s missile builders, federal prosecutors said Saturday. They said Mohsen A, aged 52, had been remanded in custody on Friday on suspicion of breaching German laws that restrict exports of militarily useful items. Iran is under a UN embargo. Police raided premises in four German states in connection with the July 2007 sale of the 1.4-million-euro (2.1-million-dollar) sale of the furnace. Investigators believe the furnace could have been used to make missile launcher components. A German aged 64 and a dual Iranian-German national aged 49 were also under suspicion, the prosecutors in the southern city of Karlsruhe said. The suspects were accused of exporting a second furnace in July 2008 using a front company in Asia.
More suppressive measures against university students in Iran
The Iranian regime has intensified pressure on the students of the Universities of Babol (northern Iran) and Kermanshah (western Iran).According to reports, the suppressive disciplinary committee of the Kermanshah University has deprived 100 students from 1-3 semesters of education and has convicted some of the students for pecuniary fine. At Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, government agents have not only sentenced some students to imprisonment and deprivation from education, but they have severely intensified the security measures at the university.The appointed president of the university has repeatedly summoned families of the active students and threatened and intimidated them.
Chants of "God is great" cost 2 to 5 year imprisonment
The Iranian regime recently has declared imprisonment for chanting “God is great” on rooftops at nights in Iran. Towards the end of the Shah’s regime in 1979, people would go on their rooftops to chant “God is great” and “Down with Shah”. These days people of Iran use the same tactics to fight the dictatorship ruling their country. This is the first time that the Iranian regime officially issues such a strong punishment for calling the God, great.
Monday, October 12, 2009
NEWS))))))
The 36 PMOI detainees were finally released
Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras the Vice President of the European Parliament and the President of international committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) wrote on Friday: We were happy to hear of the release of 36 members of the Iranian democratic opposition, PMOI, after 72 days of imprisonment and hunger strike in Iraq.These 36 were arrested on 28 July 2009 when unarmed and defenceless residents of Camp Ashraf, home to 3400 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI/MEK], were brutally attacked by the Iraqi forces. 11 people of them were killed with over 500 wounded. During their arrest, these 36 Iranian dissidents were beaten and wounded and seven of them were unconscious at the time of their capture and abduction. They were held for several days in appalling conditions outside of Ashraf and then transferred to the local prison in the city of Khalis. Three consecutive court rulings in Khalis ordered their immediate release. But the Iraqi government refused to implement the order which led to an international campaign resulting finally to the release of these hostages on 7 October.We welcome that the Iraqi government finally accepted to respect the rule of law and the verdicts of its own court. Unfortunately the brutal treatment of the Iranian refugees in camp Ashraf by the Iraqi government has been against the most elementary humanitarian behaviour and we consider it unacceptable. We were hoping to see a democratic Iraq and our disappointment after this atrocity is beyond measure. Respect for international laws and human rights of these Iranian dissidents in Iraq is the minimum expectation for us in the European Parliament.To guarantee the future safety of Camp Ashraf, we call on the UN to immediately set up a permanent team inside Ashraf. We praise the work done by Mr Ad Melkert, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and his colleagues who have worked tirelessly in the past 72 days for these 36 hostages. UNAMI should make sure that no member of PMOI in camp Ashraf is moved anywhere inside Iraq against his/her wish. The US government which signed a mutual agreement with every member of PMOI in Iraq to guarantee their protection must continue to provide security to Ashraf residents, as long as US forces are in Iraq. The hunger strikes in Ottawa, Washington D.C, London-England, Berlin, and the Hagen ended on Wednesday after the release and return of the 36 hostages. The Iranian-Canadians in Ottawa broke their hunger strikes after 71 days and had their celebration in front of the US embassy from morning till supper time. They were relived and excited to hear the release of the 36 hostages and were especially excited to learn that they return to Ashraf. They said it was a huge victory for them and a big loss for the Iranian regime who sought the extradition of the PMOI members to Iran.
Iran: Corpses of anti-regime protesters abandoned on streets
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 11, 2009 that the criminal agents from the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) on Wednesday abandoned the bloodied corpse of Amin Zandi on a street located in the vicinity of the western city of Ilam. The coroner declared that he had died just 4 hours before his body was discovered.Mr. Amin Zandi, a student at the University of Ilam, was originally from Ahvaz and was arrested by MOIS agents in an anti-government protest in June. During his four months of detention he was subjected to harassment and torture. The Iranian regime refused to respond to his families enquiries regarding his condition and whereabouts during this time.In a similar crime, MOIS agents left the corpse of Mohamad-javad Parandakh, a fourth-year chemical engineering student at the Esfahan University of Technology, under one of the city’s bridges. The coroner in Esfahan declared that his death resulted from a skull fracture after he was hit by a heavy object.Mohamad-javad Parandakh, a 23-year-old male student from the western province of Gilan-gharb, had been summoned to Esfahan’s MOIS office after participating in anti-regime protests. He was killed under torture by MOIS henchmen on the third day of his detention. His family found his body among abandoned bodies at the city’s coroner’s office. MOIS agents forced the family to say that a car accident caused his death.The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations, particularly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, to take immediate and binding measures to deal with the deterioration of prison conditions and to free political prisoners in Iran.
Amnesty speaks out on executions in Iran
United Press International reported on Oct. 5th that the Iranian authorities must order a stay of execution for a man accused of committing murder when he was a juvenile, Amnesty International said. Iranian authorities were scheduled Monday to execute Abbas Hosseini, an Afghan national convicted of murder when he was 17 years old. 'It is sickening that Iran continues to flout international law by arranging to kill an individual accused of committing a crime as a child,' said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East program.
In other news Behnud Shojdaie was executed in Iran. The families of the political detainees gathered outside the notorious Evin prison today to halt his execution. International human rights organizations had call for his release repeatedly, but the Iranian regime did not pay any attention to them and executed this young man.
The 36 PMOI detainees were finally released
Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras the Vice President of the European Parliament and the President of international committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) wrote on Friday: We were happy to hear of the release of 36 members of the Iranian democratic opposition, PMOI, after 72 days of imprisonment and hunger strike in Iraq.These 36 were arrested on 28 July 2009 when unarmed and defenceless residents of Camp Ashraf, home to 3400 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI/MEK], were brutally attacked by the Iraqi forces. 11 people of them were killed with over 500 wounded. During their arrest, these 36 Iranian dissidents were beaten and wounded and seven of them were unconscious at the time of their capture and abduction. They were held for several days in appalling conditions outside of Ashraf and then transferred to the local prison in the city of Khalis. Three consecutive court rulings in Khalis ordered their immediate release. But the Iraqi government refused to implement the order which led to an international campaign resulting finally to the release of these hostages on 7 October.We welcome that the Iraqi government finally accepted to respect the rule of law and the verdicts of its own court. Unfortunately the brutal treatment of the Iranian refugees in camp Ashraf by the Iraqi government has been against the most elementary humanitarian behaviour and we consider it unacceptable. We were hoping to see a democratic Iraq and our disappointment after this atrocity is beyond measure. Respect for international laws and human rights of these Iranian dissidents in Iraq is the minimum expectation for us in the European Parliament.To guarantee the future safety of Camp Ashraf, we call on the UN to immediately set up a permanent team inside Ashraf. We praise the work done by Mr Ad Melkert, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and his colleagues who have worked tirelessly in the past 72 days for these 36 hostages. UNAMI should make sure that no member of PMOI in camp Ashraf is moved anywhere inside Iraq against his/her wish. The US government which signed a mutual agreement with every member of PMOI in Iraq to guarantee their protection must continue to provide security to Ashraf residents, as long as US forces are in Iraq. The hunger strikes in Ottawa, Washington D.C, London-England, Berlin, and the Hagen ended on Wednesday after the release and return of the 36 hostages. The Iranian-Canadians in Ottawa broke their hunger strikes after 71 days and had their celebration in front of the US embassy from morning till supper time. They were relived and excited to hear the release of the 36 hostages and were especially excited to learn that they return to Ashraf. They said it was a huge victory for them and a big loss for the Iranian regime who sought the extradition of the PMOI members to Iran.
Iran: Corpses of anti-regime protesters abandoned on streets
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 11, 2009 that the criminal agents from the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) on Wednesday abandoned the bloodied corpse of Amin Zandi on a street located in the vicinity of the western city of Ilam. The coroner declared that he had died just 4 hours before his body was discovered.Mr. Amin Zandi, a student at the University of Ilam, was originally from Ahvaz and was arrested by MOIS agents in an anti-government protest in June. During his four months of detention he was subjected to harassment and torture. The Iranian regime refused to respond to his families enquiries regarding his condition and whereabouts during this time.In a similar crime, MOIS agents left the corpse of Mohamad-javad Parandakh, a fourth-year chemical engineering student at the Esfahan University of Technology, under one of the city’s bridges. The coroner in Esfahan declared that his death resulted from a skull fracture after he was hit by a heavy object.Mohamad-javad Parandakh, a 23-year-old male student from the western province of Gilan-gharb, had been summoned to Esfahan’s MOIS office after participating in anti-regime protests. He was killed under torture by MOIS henchmen on the third day of his detention. His family found his body among abandoned bodies at the city’s coroner’s office. MOIS agents forced the family to say that a car accident caused his death.The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations, particularly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, to take immediate and binding measures to deal with the deterioration of prison conditions and to free political prisoners in Iran.
Amnesty speaks out on executions in Iran
United Press International reported on Oct. 5th that the Iranian authorities must order a stay of execution for a man accused of committing murder when he was a juvenile, Amnesty International said. Iranian authorities were scheduled Monday to execute Abbas Hosseini, an Afghan national convicted of murder when he was 17 years old. 'It is sickening that Iran continues to flout international law by arranging to kill an individual accused of committing a crime as a child,' said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East program.
In other news Behnud Shojdaie was executed in Iran. The families of the political detainees gathered outside the notorious Evin prison today to halt his execution. International human rights organizations had call for his release repeatedly, but the Iranian regime did not pay any attention to them and executed this young man.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
NEWS))))))
Violent transfer of Ashraf 36hostages to Iraq Prime Ministry special prison on Iranian regime’s demand
The 36 PMOI members on their 69th day of hunger strike and their fourth day of dry hunger strike were violently transferred to former Mosana Airport prison which is especially run by Iraq’s Prime Minister’s office. People who are arrested under the orders of the Prime Ministry of Iraq are transferred to this prison. Brutal and violent treatment of detainees in this prison is well-known. There are no criteria in this prison for the period of detention and manner of investigation and the authorities have open hand to do what they wish to. The headquarters for Iraq’s Prime Ministry’s operational body, headquarters for Hezb al-Da’ava Party (led by Nouri al-Maliki), headquarters for Army’s intelligence and center for Baghdad operation which commands police and army forces are all based in this airport. According to Iranian regime’s official news agency IRNA, Ali Larijani, speaker of mullahs’ parliament on October 1 said: “Iran have always supported Iraq in promotion of democracy.” He added: “We hope that the close cooperation between Iran and Iraq will lead to the expulsion of terrorist groups such as the hypocrites (term used by the regime for the PMOI) from the region.”According to our information, Kazemi Qomi, a commander of the Quds terrorist force in Iraq and the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Baghdad, reported to Tehran that the transfer of 36 Ashraf residents to a new location was reassuring and added: “The Prime Minister’s office has it own special judges in Karkh and Rasafeh courts to try those arrested under the orders of this office. If they want to refer a case to the Central Criminal Court of Karkh, the person is interrogation first and then referred to a trusted judge of their own to deal with him accordingly…” According to Kazemi Qomi’s instructions to interrogators, the PMOI members in detention must answer questions such as, “Since 1981, in what operations against the Islamic Republic were they involved in Iran and during their stay in Iraq and how they were planning in Ashraf Garrison to attack and kill Iraqi forces who entered the garrison two months ago.”Following three verdicts by the judge and explicit remarks by the Iraqi Prosecutor General and official reply by the Country’s Judiciary as to the release of the 36 detainees on the grounds of the legality of their stay in Iraq and their total innocence, there are no excuses for the continuation of their unlawful detention.The officials in the Prime Minister’s office in a preposterous state decree are claiming that the Interior Ministry has the right to detain any foreigner for a period of 15 days.This invalid legal reasoning is reminiscent of anarchy in the new Iraq. It is notable that Iraq’s Interior Ministry had so far kept silence on this issue and been claiming that they had absolutely no involvement in the case of these 36 people.The officials at the Prime Minister’s office are also claiming that transfer of the 36 to a private prison in Mosana Airport has been done in agreement with the U.S. Embassy, whereas the U.S. officials are saying that the Iraqi government has informed them and the UN that the 36 hostages have been released and are no longer considered as detainees. As it has been mentioned in Statement No. 101 of this Secretariat, the Iranian Resistance believes that “the aim of their violent transfer is to kill them and the Iraqi Government is directly responsible for it,” as they are on their 69th day of hunger strike since their abduction and have refusing to take liquid for the past 4 day. The Iranian Resistance considers today’s violent displacement as an act to pave the way to annihilate the 36 hostages purposefully. They should immediately be returned to Ashraf, otherwise the Iraqi Government is responsible for their deaths. Around 19:00 local time on Sunday the Associated Press reported that “An official in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki” said that “Iraq is looking for a country to accept 36 detained members of an Iranian opposition group.” “The official said the detainees would not be sent to Iran, where they would likely face arrest, but Iraq is seeking to send them to a third country. The official gave no other details or specific timetable,” the report added.If the statements made by the official at Iraq’s Prime Ministry are not part of a propaganda maneuvering for the purpose of killing time and shirking government’s indisputable responsibilities, the Iranian Resistance welcomes their immediate transfer to the United States or any European Union member states. In 2004, the American Forces pledged to protect Ashraf residents until final determination of their status in return for their disarmaments.Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of IranOctober 4, 2009
It's been 70 days since a group of Iranian-Canadians have started their hunger strike in front of the US embassy in Ottawa in protes of a brutal attack on camp Ashraf by the Iraqi forces on the order of the Iranian regime in July of 2009. The physical condition of the strikers is not good and they suffer from various pain. They have announced though that until the 36 hostages in the hands of the Iraqis are not freed they would continue their hunger strike.
Iranian regime: PMOI in Iraq are in our custody through an intermediary
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 2, 2009: hours after the bloody and violent transfer of 36 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) to prison cells of the New Iraq’s Intelligence, a website known for its close link to mullahs’ notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) reported: “Detention of the Mojahedin in Iraq has become ‘a better option than expulsion from Iraq.’ That is to say that they are indirectly, through an intermediary, in the custody of Iran.” The report added: “By considering all aspects of this matter, especially the fact that other countries’ refusal to accept the Mojahedin is acting as an obstacle to their expulsion, the Iraqi Government is preparing for their transfer to other camps. This move can be a major step toward containing the Mojahedin’s terrorist threats on one hand and preventing them from interfering in Iraqi internal affairs on the other.”The IRGC, acting as the Iraqi Government’s godfather, in its news agency (Fars News Agency), quoted ’an informed Iraqi source,” on the “offences of the 36 detained members of the hypocrites (the term used by the Iranian regime to refer to the PMOI)” as saying that: “The Iraqi government intends to present documents to the court on the crimes they have committed… Recently, some news was distributed concerning a ruling by an Iraqi judge on their release. The 36 members of hypocrites were detained by the Iraqi police based on article 431 on the charges of inciting violence and chaos during the late July incidents in Camp Ashraf.” Of course it is evident that the “informed Iraqi source” is no one except a member of the terrorist Qods Force.On Thursday, Iranian regime’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani “expressed hope that the close cooperation between Iran and Iraq will lead to the expulsion of terrorist groups such as the hypocrites from the region.”The instructions and directives by IRGC, MOIS and mullahs’ Parliament Speaker have been given to the Iraqi Government at a time when a court in the city of Khalis and Iraq’s Prosecutor General have declared that the continuation of detention of the 36 is illegal and the order for their release has been given to all police stations. Also, a group of members of Iraqi parliament, in a statement said that: “The prevention of the judge’s decision from being implemented is an arbitrary action, a violation of law, a clear violation of individual rights of citizens, an obvious insult to the sanctity and justice; therefore it is punishable by law.”Following the decisions by an Iraqi court and pursuing orders by Iraq’s Prosecutor General and the said Parliamentary positions, the hostages had to be transferred to prison cells of the New Iraq’s Intelligence as there were no more pretexts to hold them. In these circumstances, one wonders who reality is in charge of Iraq. This reminds of yesterday’s warning of the International Committee of Lawyers in Defense of Ashraf stressing that the American Forces and American Taxpayer’s money have not to Iraq to help expanding Iranian regime’s influence and cloning this regime in Iraq.”Legally it is irrelevant to term the 36 as detainees or prisoners. To be more accurate, they are the subject of “Enforced or involuntary disappearances” or, are “hostages.” This constitutes a crime against humanity particularly when it is committed against Protected Persons.The frantic directives handed down by the MOIS, IRGC and the mullahs’ parliament speaker plainly demonstrates the so called “bilateral agreement” between Khamenei on one side and the Iraqi Government on the other side on February 28 that the PMOI members in Ashraf and the hostages are paying for the price of the current Iranian uprising. This comes in the midst of their 37th day of hunger strike. It is also clear that at the same time it is the heavy price they are paying for their role as the bulwark stopping the spread of religious fundamentalism and terrorism to Iraq.
Father of a Iranian Camp Ashraf resident in Iraq, arrested in Tehran According to the NCRI the agents of the Iranian regime’s infamous Ministry of Intelligence and Security arrested Mr. Jafar Kazemi, a 45-year-old former political prisoner and the father a Camp Ashraf resident in late September in Tehran.Mr. Kazemi had already spent nine years in mullahs’ prison in 1980’s for supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was sixteen when he was first arrested and subjected to various tortures and mistreatments.Mr. Kazemi who is married with two children, was employed in a publishing company. His family has no information about him since his arrest.The Iranian Resistance, while expressing concern against torture and pressures on Mr. Kazemi, calls on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations working groups on arbitrary detention and torture to take urgent measures regarding the release of political prisoners in Iran.
Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament asked for immediate release of 36 Ashraf residents Brussels - 1 October 2009
Press release
Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament strongly condemns theforcible transfer of 36 detained Camp Ashraf residents to BaghdadWe were informed that Iraqi forces, following some government instructions, went to KhalisCity prison and transferred the 36 Iranian opposition PMOI members to Baghdad. Thesepeople were arrested during the brutal attack against Ashraf residents by the Iraqi police on 28 July 2009. The hostages were handcuffed and thrown into vehicles to be transferred to undisclosed location while they were in critical conditions with some being unconscious due to previously declared dry hunger strike in protest to their forcible displacement. On August 23 and September 17 and 27, the Iraqi court ordered their release and acquittedthem of any charges. The third verdict was a definitive one which could not be appealedaccording to Iraqi law and the 36 individuals had to be released subsequently.Associated press reported on Wednesday that “Iraq’s chief prosecutor, Ghadanfar Hamoud,issued a blanket order for police to release 36 members of an Iranian opposition group whowere detained during a raid on their camp in northern Iraq in July.”The Khalis city’s prosecutor also told the 36 PMOI members that the Sunday’s releaseorder is legal and it cannot be appealed, therefore, they should be released immediately andtheir continued detention has nothing to do with Iraq’s judicial system.On Tuesday the judge who delivered the decision told Associated France Press: ’I released them; I said that they should go back to Camp Ashraf.”These 36 prisoners have now been on hunger strike for 66 days and are in a precariouscondition, some of them near death. Their arrest and continued detention is in blatantdisregard of the Iraqi justice system and is a flagrant breach of international standards ofbehaviour. It is also in direct defiance of the European Parliament Resolution on Ashraf of24th April 2009. Amnesty International have put out a very strong press releasecondemning the continued detention of these people and the European Parliament’sPresident - Jerzy Buzek - has written to the Iraqi authorities on this matter.While the Iraqi Justice Department has declared the continued detention of the 36 abductedPMOI members as unlawful, it is now quite clear that the aim is to transfer the 36 toBaghdad to start baseless legal cases against them to please the religious dictatorship inIran.We should state that the American forces had signed an agreement in 2004 with everyindividual in Camp Ashraf, including the above 36, pledging to protect them in return forhanding over of all their weapons.So we consider the US Embassy in Iraq and the American Forces responsible for the lives ofthese hostages and their return to Ashraf and call for immediate action in this regard.We have today written to the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, urging them tomake an urgent statement demanding the immediate release of these 36 prisoners, inaccordance with the three consecutive rulings of Iraq’s own courts.Friends of a Free Iran intergroup (FOFI)European ParliamentBrusselsFriends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament (FoFI)Chair: Struan Stevenson (ECR)Vice Chairs: Steven Hughes (PSE Vice-President); Soren Sondergaard (GUE); Jan Zahradil (ECR); Tunne Kelam (EPP);Struan Stevenson, European Parliament, 04M091, Rue Wiertz, B - 1047 Brussels;
Violent transfer of Ashraf 36hostages to Iraq Prime Ministry special prison on Iranian regime’s demand
The 36 PMOI members on their 69th day of hunger strike and their fourth day of dry hunger strike were violently transferred to former Mosana Airport prison which is especially run by Iraq’s Prime Minister’s office. People who are arrested under the orders of the Prime Ministry of Iraq are transferred to this prison. Brutal and violent treatment of detainees in this prison is well-known. There are no criteria in this prison for the period of detention and manner of investigation and the authorities have open hand to do what they wish to. The headquarters for Iraq’s Prime Ministry’s operational body, headquarters for Hezb al-Da’ava Party (led by Nouri al-Maliki), headquarters for Army’s intelligence and center for Baghdad operation which commands police and army forces are all based in this airport. According to Iranian regime’s official news agency IRNA, Ali Larijani, speaker of mullahs’ parliament on October 1 said: “Iran have always supported Iraq in promotion of democracy.” He added: “We hope that the close cooperation between Iran and Iraq will lead to the expulsion of terrorist groups such as the hypocrites (term used by the regime for the PMOI) from the region.”According to our information, Kazemi Qomi, a commander of the Quds terrorist force in Iraq and the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Baghdad, reported to Tehran that the transfer of 36 Ashraf residents to a new location was reassuring and added: “The Prime Minister’s office has it own special judges in Karkh and Rasafeh courts to try those arrested under the orders of this office. If they want to refer a case to the Central Criminal Court of Karkh, the person is interrogation first and then referred to a trusted judge of their own to deal with him accordingly…” According to Kazemi Qomi’s instructions to interrogators, the PMOI members in detention must answer questions such as, “Since 1981, in what operations against the Islamic Republic were they involved in Iran and during their stay in Iraq and how they were planning in Ashraf Garrison to attack and kill Iraqi forces who entered the garrison two months ago.”Following three verdicts by the judge and explicit remarks by the Iraqi Prosecutor General and official reply by the Country’s Judiciary as to the release of the 36 detainees on the grounds of the legality of their stay in Iraq and their total innocence, there are no excuses for the continuation of their unlawful detention.The officials in the Prime Minister’s office in a preposterous state decree are claiming that the Interior Ministry has the right to detain any foreigner for a period of 15 days.This invalid legal reasoning is reminiscent of anarchy in the new Iraq. It is notable that Iraq’s Interior Ministry had so far kept silence on this issue and been claiming that they had absolutely no involvement in the case of these 36 people.The officials at the Prime Minister’s office are also claiming that transfer of the 36 to a private prison in Mosana Airport has been done in agreement with the U.S. Embassy, whereas the U.S. officials are saying that the Iraqi government has informed them and the UN that the 36 hostages have been released and are no longer considered as detainees. As it has been mentioned in Statement No. 101 of this Secretariat, the Iranian Resistance believes that “the aim of their violent transfer is to kill them and the Iraqi Government is directly responsible for it,” as they are on their 69th day of hunger strike since their abduction and have refusing to take liquid for the past 4 day. The Iranian Resistance considers today’s violent displacement as an act to pave the way to annihilate the 36 hostages purposefully. They should immediately be returned to Ashraf, otherwise the Iraqi Government is responsible for their deaths. Around 19:00 local time on Sunday the Associated Press reported that “An official in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki” said that “Iraq is looking for a country to accept 36 detained members of an Iranian opposition group.” “The official said the detainees would not be sent to Iran, where they would likely face arrest, but Iraq is seeking to send them to a third country. The official gave no other details or specific timetable,” the report added.If the statements made by the official at Iraq’s Prime Ministry are not part of a propaganda maneuvering for the purpose of killing time and shirking government’s indisputable responsibilities, the Iranian Resistance welcomes their immediate transfer to the United States or any European Union member states. In 2004, the American Forces pledged to protect Ashraf residents until final determination of their status in return for their disarmaments.Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of IranOctober 4, 2009
It's been 70 days since a group of Iranian-Canadians have started their hunger strike in front of the US embassy in Ottawa in protes of a brutal attack on camp Ashraf by the Iraqi forces on the order of the Iranian regime in July of 2009. The physical condition of the strikers is not good and they suffer from various pain. They have announced though that until the 36 hostages in the hands of the Iraqis are not freed they would continue their hunger strike.
Iranian regime: PMOI in Iraq are in our custody through an intermediary
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 2, 2009: hours after the bloody and violent transfer of 36 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) to prison cells of the New Iraq’s Intelligence, a website known for its close link to mullahs’ notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) reported: “Detention of the Mojahedin in Iraq has become ‘a better option than expulsion from Iraq.’ That is to say that they are indirectly, through an intermediary, in the custody of Iran.” The report added: “By considering all aspects of this matter, especially the fact that other countries’ refusal to accept the Mojahedin is acting as an obstacle to their expulsion, the Iraqi Government is preparing for their transfer to other camps. This move can be a major step toward containing the Mojahedin’s terrorist threats on one hand and preventing them from interfering in Iraqi internal affairs on the other.”The IRGC, acting as the Iraqi Government’s godfather, in its news agency (Fars News Agency), quoted ’an informed Iraqi source,” on the “offences of the 36 detained members of the hypocrites (the term used by the Iranian regime to refer to the PMOI)” as saying that: “The Iraqi government intends to present documents to the court on the crimes they have committed… Recently, some news was distributed concerning a ruling by an Iraqi judge on their release. The 36 members of hypocrites were detained by the Iraqi police based on article 431 on the charges of inciting violence and chaos during the late July incidents in Camp Ashraf.” Of course it is evident that the “informed Iraqi source” is no one except a member of the terrorist Qods Force.On Thursday, Iranian regime’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani “expressed hope that the close cooperation between Iran and Iraq will lead to the expulsion of terrorist groups such as the hypocrites from the region.”The instructions and directives by IRGC, MOIS and mullahs’ Parliament Speaker have been given to the Iraqi Government at a time when a court in the city of Khalis and Iraq’s Prosecutor General have declared that the continuation of detention of the 36 is illegal and the order for their release has been given to all police stations. Also, a group of members of Iraqi parliament, in a statement said that: “The prevention of the judge’s decision from being implemented is an arbitrary action, a violation of law, a clear violation of individual rights of citizens, an obvious insult to the sanctity and justice; therefore it is punishable by law.”Following the decisions by an Iraqi court and pursuing orders by Iraq’s Prosecutor General and the said Parliamentary positions, the hostages had to be transferred to prison cells of the New Iraq’s Intelligence as there were no more pretexts to hold them. In these circumstances, one wonders who reality is in charge of Iraq. This reminds of yesterday’s warning of the International Committee of Lawyers in Defense of Ashraf stressing that the American Forces and American Taxpayer’s money have not to Iraq to help expanding Iranian regime’s influence and cloning this regime in Iraq.”Legally it is irrelevant to term the 36 as detainees or prisoners. To be more accurate, they are the subject of “Enforced or involuntary disappearances” or, are “hostages.” This constitutes a crime against humanity particularly when it is committed against Protected Persons.The frantic directives handed down by the MOIS, IRGC and the mullahs’ parliament speaker plainly demonstrates the so called “bilateral agreement” between Khamenei on one side and the Iraqi Government on the other side on February 28 that the PMOI members in Ashraf and the hostages are paying for the price of the current Iranian uprising. This comes in the midst of their 37th day of hunger strike. It is also clear that at the same time it is the heavy price they are paying for their role as the bulwark stopping the spread of religious fundamentalism and terrorism to Iraq.
Father of a Iranian Camp Ashraf resident in Iraq, arrested in Tehran According to the NCRI the agents of the Iranian regime’s infamous Ministry of Intelligence and Security arrested Mr. Jafar Kazemi, a 45-year-old former political prisoner and the father a Camp Ashraf resident in late September in Tehran.Mr. Kazemi had already spent nine years in mullahs’ prison in 1980’s for supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was sixteen when he was first arrested and subjected to various tortures and mistreatments.Mr. Kazemi who is married with two children, was employed in a publishing company. His family has no information about him since his arrest.The Iranian Resistance, while expressing concern against torture and pressures on Mr. Kazemi, calls on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations working groups on arbitrary detention and torture to take urgent measures regarding the release of political prisoners in Iran.
Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament asked for immediate release of 36 Ashraf residents Brussels - 1 October 2009
Press release
Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament strongly condemns theforcible transfer of 36 detained Camp Ashraf residents to BaghdadWe were informed that Iraqi forces, following some government instructions, went to KhalisCity prison and transferred the 36 Iranian opposition PMOI members to Baghdad. Thesepeople were arrested during the brutal attack against Ashraf residents by the Iraqi police on 28 July 2009. The hostages were handcuffed and thrown into vehicles to be transferred to undisclosed location while they were in critical conditions with some being unconscious due to previously declared dry hunger strike in protest to their forcible displacement. On August 23 and September 17 and 27, the Iraqi court ordered their release and acquittedthem of any charges. The third verdict was a definitive one which could not be appealedaccording to Iraqi law and the 36 individuals had to be released subsequently.Associated press reported on Wednesday that “Iraq’s chief prosecutor, Ghadanfar Hamoud,issued a blanket order for police to release 36 members of an Iranian opposition group whowere detained during a raid on their camp in northern Iraq in July.”The Khalis city’s prosecutor also told the 36 PMOI members that the Sunday’s releaseorder is legal and it cannot be appealed, therefore, they should be released immediately andtheir continued detention has nothing to do with Iraq’s judicial system.On Tuesday the judge who delivered the decision told Associated France Press: ’I released them; I said that they should go back to Camp Ashraf.”These 36 prisoners have now been on hunger strike for 66 days and are in a precariouscondition, some of them near death. Their arrest and continued detention is in blatantdisregard of the Iraqi justice system and is a flagrant breach of international standards ofbehaviour. It is also in direct defiance of the European Parliament Resolution on Ashraf of24th April 2009. Amnesty International have put out a very strong press releasecondemning the continued detention of these people and the European Parliament’sPresident - Jerzy Buzek - has written to the Iraqi authorities on this matter.While the Iraqi Justice Department has declared the continued detention of the 36 abductedPMOI members as unlawful, it is now quite clear that the aim is to transfer the 36 toBaghdad to start baseless legal cases against them to please the religious dictatorship inIran.We should state that the American forces had signed an agreement in 2004 with everyindividual in Camp Ashraf, including the above 36, pledging to protect them in return forhanding over of all their weapons.So we consider the US Embassy in Iraq and the American Forces responsible for the lives ofthese hostages and their return to Ashraf and call for immediate action in this regard.We have today written to the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, urging them tomake an urgent statement demanding the immediate release of these 36 prisoners, inaccordance with the three consecutive rulings of Iraq’s own courts.Friends of a Free Iran intergroup (FOFI)European ParliamentBrusselsFriends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament (FoFI)Chair: Struan Stevenson (ECR)Vice Chairs: Steven Hughes (PSE Vice-President); Soren Sondergaard (GUE); Jan Zahradil (ECR); Tunne Kelam (EPP);Struan Stevenson, European Parliament, 04M091, Rue Wiertz, B - 1047 Brussels;
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