Sir Richard Roberts, a prominent British –American biochemist and the Nobel Laureate in Medicine in 1993, in a letter to the Iraqi Health Minister, condemned Ashraf residents’ medical siege and installation of loudspeakers for psychological torture of them as crime against humanity.
The letter of Professor Richard Roberts is as follows:

March 16, 2011
Dear Minister Majid Hamd Amin,
I am writing to you as a Nobel Laureate in Medicine (1993) to express my deep concern and
utter abhorrence of what appears to be the state-sponsored medical siege imposed on the
3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf in your country. The residents of this camp are clearly
protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and should be treated as such.
I find it very sad and quite shocking that the medical care and treatment required by the camp residents is being used as a weapon to impose yet more pressure on these defenseless
individuals.

You must be aware that the misuse of medical treatment to suppress innocent people constitutes a crime against humanity and its perpetrators could and should be prosecuted.
Accordingly, I urge you – as the Minister of Health and as a physician – to stop this flagrant violation of human rights and make sure that complete access to medical services to the residents of Camp Ashraf is made available immediately before more patients lose their lives. If necessary this can even be at their own expense although given the previous mistreatment of these refugees it would seem that your government could enable access to the necessary treatment without charge.

I also ask that you use your authority to remove the loudspeakers that are appear to be used as a means of psychological torture against the residents, particularly the patients in the hospital.

I look forward to your immediate measures in this regard.

Sir Richard Roberts Ph.D., F.R.S.
1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Chief Scientific Officer, New England Biolabs

Copies of the letter were also sent to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey, US forces commander in Iraq General Lloyd Austin, and the UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Iraq Ad Melkert.