The Camp Liberty Legal Committee (CLLC), commemorating the heroic members of the Ashraf Legal Committee, PMOI members Hamid Batebi (Tabra), legal advisor and representative, Hossein Madani, legal advisor, Abolghasem Rezvani, PMOI lawyer and former judge in Iran, who were murdered in the 1 September 2013 massacre in Camp Ashraf, has prepared and published a comprehensive report on “PMOI’s Property in Ashraf” in Farsi (in 735 pages) and also in English (in 635 pages).
This report, published in an in-depth book consisting of 10 chapters including 310 documents and 73 graphic documentaries, leaves no doubt in the full rights of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and Ashraf residents over their moveable and immovable property back in Ashraf. This report also presents documents and cites Iraqi laws to describe the legal basis of the PMOI’s ownership of their moveable and immoveable property.
The inhumane mullahs’ regime ruling Iran and its puppet in Iraq, former prime minister Nouri Maliki, whose goal were nothing but the complete annihilation of the PMOI or forcing them to surrender, massacred and forced Ashraf residents to leave the camp, and also attempted to deprive them of their rights to their property. Maliki entered Tehran on 7 June 2008 and ten days later, on 17 June 2008, he issued a criminal and illegal order under the pretext of an Iraqi Council of Ministers resolution in violation of all of the Ashraf residents’ rights. This inhumane order, dictated under instructions issued by the Iranian regime’s supreme leader in Tehran and in complete violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, International Covenant of Political and Civil Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also in complete violation of written commitments provided by the United States and the interim Iraqi government vis-à-vis Ashraf residents (a letter written on 25 June 2004 by General Miller, Deputy Commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq to Ashraf residents’ representative), read in part: “Any cooperation with the terrorist PMOI by any Iraqi or foreign organization, party, institute or individual in Iraq is forbidden, and any individual found cooperating with them will be referred to the judiciary according to the Anti-Terrorism Law.”
Under Maliki’s tenure the PMOI came under attack 27 times in Ashraf and Liberty, leading to the murder of 117 PMOI members and 1,380 others being injured. Furthermore, seven members – including six women – were abducted as hostages and there remains no trace of their whereabouts. Twenty-seven PMOI members have lost their lives due to an inhumane medical siege imposed on Ashraf and Liberty that began back in 2009 and continues to this day.
On the PMOI’s property and assets Maliki pursued a policy of confiscating their property and plundering the result of the PMOI’s three decades of work and excruciating efforts, and the support provided by their fellow countrymen inside and outside of the country. For this very reason, Maliki’s men took action to destroy any documents proving the PMOI’s ownership over their property. The collaboration between Maliki and former UN envoy in Iraq Martin Kobler on confiscating the large power generators in Ashraf – of which documents proving their purchase by the PMOI are available – is just one example of these criminal measures.
When the last group of PMOI members, meaning 42 witnesses of the Ashraf massacre, was leaving the camp on September 11, 2013, Maliki’s agents prevented them from transferring 15 boxes of documents on PMOI property in Ashraf and Liberty. Finally, as the UN representative mediated, arrangements were made for these documents to be temporarily placed in one of Ashraf’s warehouses. Each warehouse had three locks with three keys, one being held by each party, the PMOI, UN and Iraqi government.
Therefore, the Camp Liberty Legal Committee, continuing the work of the Ashraf Legal Committee, considered its duty to gather and publish these documents as far as it was possible, and publish them in a book to report to the Iranian people and also for future legal and political measures in the international stage.
This book, in addition to documents related to the PMOI’s complete financial independence from the very beginning of their presence in Iraq, covers documents on the moveable and immovable property, and also documents regarding the PMOI’s efforts to sell this property and the contracts signed with Iraqi and non-Iraq individuals and merchants, and how the Iraqi government blocked their implementation. Amongst these documents is a contract signed by the residents with a UK company to purchase Ashraf’s movable and immovable property at a price of $550 million, with a stamp of approval from the Iraqi Embassy in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, Maliki’s government threatened to kill and confiscate the property of the representative of this company in Baghdad, and as a result completely blocking this contract from going through.
The book, “PMOI’s Property in Ashraf”, also provides details and statistics on the widespread theft and plundering of Ashraf property carried out by Maliki’s elements in Ashraf.
Camp Liberty Legal Committee (CLLC) expresses its utmost gratitude to all those individuals who cooperated and helped in gathering facts and documents for this book, and to the PMOI supporters across the globe who defended the PMOI’s ownership right over the result of their work and assets and the necessity to return this property or pay the PMOI in return. We hope this goal will be realized with their effort.
Camp Liberty Legal Committee
12 September 2015
Committee Chair: Ms. Masumeh Ehtesham
Members and Committee Council: Messrs. Farhad Eshraghi – Alborz Bahador – Ali Bahari Javan – Yahya Parham – Ali Mohammad Toutonchi – Behzad Saffari – Nasser Faghihi Habib Abadi – Jamal Mosanna – Saeed Mahdavieh – Mohammad Javad Nikbakhti – Mohammad Ali Niknia
Representatives in Albania: Gholam Ali Mesbah – Ali Ashraf Ebadi
