Iraq tribunal sets sights on Iran opposition group

Reuters
March 12, 2007

BAGHDAD, March 12 (Reuters) - A top Iraqi prosecutor plans to bring charges against senior members of an exiled Iranian opposition group over its alleged role in oppressing Iraqi Shi'ites and Kurds under former president Saddam Hussein.

Jaafar al-Moussawi, chief prosecutor of the Iraqi High Tribunal, said on Sunday the Mujahideen Khalq helped Saddam suppress Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north during a 1991 uprising after Iraq's defeat in the first Gulf War.

"We have full evidence implicating the Iranian group in siding with the former regime in committing crimes against humanity," Moussawi told Reuters. A spokesman for the Mujahideen denied the accusations.

The Mujahideen once fought the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran but soon after the 1979 Islamic Revolution quarrelled also with the new rulers in Tehran, whom they sought to overthrow from bases set up in the 1980s in Saddam's Iraq, then at war with Iran.

The group, which has mounted attacks inside Iran, was believed to have received military aid from Saddam, but its fortunes changed after a U.S.-led invasion toppled him in 2003. U.S. forces bombed its bases and the group handed over its arms.

The group is on a U.S. State Department list of terrorist organisations but is supported by some conservative U.S. politicians as a lever against the Iranian government. It was the first body to expose a covert nuclear programme by Iran.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up after the 2003 invasion to prosecute crimes against humanity and genocide committed during Saddam's rule. Its statutes give it jurisdiction over non-Iraqi residents and any case against the Mujahideen would be its first against foreigners for Saddam-era crimes.

The court sentenced Saddam to death last year for crimes against Shi'ites and is currently hearing a case against former senior Iraqi officials for genocide against Kurds.

"The prosecution chamber will have a thorough discussion of the case and it will be referred to the investigative panel soon," Moussawi said, adding that charges could be brought against senior Mujahideen members.

Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has re-established diplomatic ties with Iran, accused the group last July of meddling in his country's affairs and suggested it could face expulsion. The Mujahideen said that would be submission to "the demands and wishes of the theocracy ruling Iran".

Moussawi said he had strong evidence including video tapes showing Mujahideen Khalq senior officials meeting with high-ranking Saddam-era Iraqi intelligence officers and receiving large sums of money to implement Saddam's orders.

A spokesman for the Iranian group, Shahrayar Kia, called the accusations "baseless and politically motivated".

"We are clear of all charges raised by Jaafar al-Moussawi and our presence in Iraq is completely protected under the Geneva convention," he told Reuters on Sunday by telephone from the group's Ashraf base north of Baghdad.

The first case to be tried by the Iraqi High Tribunal led to Saddam being found guilty of crimes against humanity for the killing and torture of Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt there in 1982.

Saddam was executed at the end of December but another trial continues for a campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s. Several other cases are expected to come to the court, including another one against Iraqi officials for the oppression of Shi'ites after the first Gulf War.

Court officials have said they expect prosecutors in the Kurdish case to present closing arguments next week. Prosecutors are expected to ask for specific sentences for each of the six defendants, which could include death.