In letters addressed to Iran’s Foreign Ministry and Judiciary, Zohreh Elahian, the chairwoman of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, has called for extradition of members of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from European countries.
“As you know, in the Islamic Republic of Iran more than 17,000 of our beloved compatriots have fallen victims to terrorist acts and gross and systematic violations by terrorist groups, in particular Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (known as hypocrites in Iran) and the ISIS, of the basic human rights including the right to life, security, and health,” Elahian said in her Monday letter addressed to Judiciary Chief Seyed Ebrahim Raisi.
She called on the judiciary chief to issue an order paving the way for identifying, suing, extraditing, prosecuting, and confiscating the assets of the MKO terrorists. She also called for gathering accurate information about MKO terrorists’ activities at the UN.
Elahian sent a similar letter to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, calling on the Foreign Ministry to make preparations for prosecuting MKO terrorists.
“Unfortunately, today the majority of these terrorists continue to hatch plans against the Iranian people by fleeing the blade of justice and seeking refuge in European countries,” Elahian wrote to Zarif.
According to the letter, the chairwoman made four requests of Zarif with regard to MKO terrorists. First of all, she requested that the Foreign Ministry issue an immediate warning to the European countries that harbor MKO terrorists.
Second, she called for a meeting between the victims’ families and ambassadors of countries supporting the MKO.
Third, the ministry should gather accurate information on how the European countries support the MKO.
And finally, the ministry should gather information on MKO’s activities at the UN, especially in Geneva.
Elahian also sent another letter to Head of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) Maria Arena, calling for a trial of MKO terrorists who are living in Europe.
“We expect that the European Parliament pursue the issue and the European governments act based on goodwill and the principle of commitment to the international undertakings, support the victims of terror and their family members, provide the victims with access to justice and put the terrorists who live in these countries on trial to end the process of no punishment for the terrorists and take an effective step in the fight against terrorism,” Elahian wrote, according to the Fars news agency.
According to the Fars report, the MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where they received support from Iraq’s then-dictator Saddam Hussein. In 2012, the US State Department removed the MKO from its list of designated terrorist organizations under intense lobbying by groups associated to Saudi Arabia and other regimes adversarial to Iran. A few years ago, MKO members were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province to Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a former US military base in Baghdad, and were later sent to Albania. Those members, who have managed to escape, have revealed MKO’s scandalous means of access to money, almost exclusively coming from Saudi Arabia.