Pierre Bercis ,Chair of New Human Rights Society, publilshed a call in support of the PMOI in Ashraf City in French daily I’Humanite on 10 Oct. 2008, titled as ’ Human rights, an appeal to support the PMOI’ signed by several political and human rights personalities in France.
Part of the article reads:
An appeal has been launched in defense of Iranian dissidents who are in Iraq. They were disarmed in May 2003 by the Multinational Forces in Iraq and enjoy the status of ’protected persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Pierre Bercis’s call has warned against the consequences fo transferring protection of Ashraf to US forces and says: “One hundred family members and relatives of residents of Ashraf are holding a sit-in outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva for past several weeks.
Amnesty International wrote to Iraqi and U.S. governments to remind them of their obligations under international law, including Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits the extradition or forced repatriation to Iran of the PMOI member as long as the Multinational Forces are present in Iraqi territory.”
Among the signatories of the appeal are Raymond Aubrac, François Colcombet, former MP and judge; Bishop Gaillot; Ghaleb Bencheikh, president of World Conference of Religions for Peace; Saleh Rajavi, representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in France; Anissa Boumediene, former Algerian First Lady; Betoul Fekkar, the first woman member of the French Council of Muslim worshipers in France (CFCM.(