The mullahs' scandalous manipulation of Iraq's Judiciary

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
March 12, 2007

The religious dictatorship ruling Iran has resorted to a new ploy against the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) in Iraq. The moves come after failure of the mullahs' successive schemes through the Iraqi government and parliament to expel the PMOI from that country.

To this end, one of Tehran's notorious agents, Jaafar al-Moussawi, acting as the Special Iraq’s Prosecutor, alleged that the PMOI had helped the Iraqi government in the crackdown on “Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north in 1991.”

The International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf (ICJDA) called for the matter to be referred to an international tribunal and demanded that the Iraqi prosecutor submit all the so-called documents to this committee.

The Iranian Resistance condemned such absurd allegations by “prosecutor of the Iraqi High Tribunal” in Baghdad and called the scheme a mockery of Iraqi judicial system by the criminal mullahs. The Iranian regime is trying to cover its crimes in Iraq and ripping off billions of dollars of their oil revenues from the people of that country. The Iranian Resistance is prepared to challenge the regime’s agents and those criminals who have been organizing and directing death squads and fomenting terrorism in Iraq. It has thousands of pages of irrefutable evidence and documents as well as detailed information that could be presented in any international court before the eyes of the world community..

The Iranian regime and its agents had been setting the stage for this conspiracy a while ago. On March 1, 2007, one of the most infamous agents of the Iranian regime, Sheikh Homam Hamoudi, took part in an interview in the company of the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Brig. Gen. Hassan Kazami Qomi, a commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps' Qods Force. The two accused the PMOI “of slaughtering and suppressing Iraqis in Karbala and Kalar in [Iraq’s] Kurdistan.”

On March 10, the Iranian regime’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Abbas Araqchi, who represented the Iranian regime in the International Conference on Iraq’s Security in Baghdad on Saturday, described the PMOI as a “major source of instability," for the mullahs' regime. He said, “We expect the Iraqi government to take the necessary measures to deal with this issue."

Yesterday, the regime’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “taking a firm action” against the PMOI and “refraining from sheltering, activating or using this group” is one the three pillars of the regime’s policy in Iraq and in the region. The other two demands are the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and handing over the security arrangements to the current Iraqi government.

Earlier, on January 26, 2007, the Iraqi government spokesman, Ali Dabagh, admitted in an interview with the Iranian regime’s Arab language television that he had coordinated with the Iranian regime to have the PMOI expelled from Iraq.

It is worthy of note that in January 2007, the mullahs’ regime summoned a group of its Iraqi agents to Tehran to receive Ali Khomeini’s direct orders. One instruction was to use the Iraqi judiciary in case domestic and international pressures compelled the Iraqi government to acknowledge the PMOI's 20-year residence and refugee status in Iraq.

At the same time, on February 17, 2007, in an interview with the al-Sharqiya television network in Iraq, Ali Dabagh said, “We have no intention of brining the 3,600 people [PMOI members] to trial…because we have no evidence…”

According to recognized principles of international law, the Iraqi government cannot act as both the plaintiff and judge against the PMOI as a non-Iraqi organization which enjoys extraterritorial and international legal status, unless it was intent on trampling upon international laws and statutes. In that case, the Iraqi government must go to an international tribunal, which would be welcomed by the PMOI and the NCRI.

Common Article 3 of Geneva Conventions, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, emphasize that it is mandatory to provide protection to persons taking no active part in the hostilities in the territory of a country, where armed conflict not of an international character is occurring. According to this Article, violence to life and person, in particular outrages upon personal dignity, humiliating and degrading treatment; the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples, are prohibited.

The Iranian Resistance underscores the call by the ICJDA on the Iraqi government and its prosecutor for High Tribunal to appear before an international court. It also warns against making a mockery of the Iraqi laws to set the stage for the Iranian regime's terrorist and murderous ploys against residents of Ashraf City.

Without an international tribunal with recognized standards and guarantees stipulated in Geneva Conventions, the claims by the mullahs' operatives against the PMOI lack any legal credibility and standing. These allegations only expose the extent of the meddling and interference of religious fascism ruling Iran in Iraq's political and legal institutions and agencies.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 12, 2007