Bardia Amir-‘s Body is Still a Hostage By Iraqi Government

62 days after Mr. Bardia Amir-Mostowfian, 44, passed away, his body has still been taken hostage by the Committee in the Iraqi Prime Minister office tasked with suppression of Ashraf. Bardia, a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), was among the third group of Ashraf residents who were transferred to Camp Liberty in a forcible relocation under inhuman pressures of the Government of Iraq (GoI) and incomprehensible insistence of the SRSG, in the eve of Nourooz festivities (Iranian new year). He passed away an hour after his arrival at Liberty when the residents had gathered to celebrate the Iranian New Year. The Iraqi doctor confirmed that he had died of cardiac arrest due to intense fatigue and pressure.

The GoI and its representative, Sadeq Mohammad Kazem- who has played direct role in two massacres in July 2009 and April 2011, and is under investigation by Spanish court – refuses to hand over Bardia’s body to his family in Liberty. This is an illegal and inhuman act which also contradicts Islamic customs. Prior to this case, the GoI in coordination with the Mullah’s embassy in Baghdad, had refused to deliver the body of Ms. Mehr-Sefat to her family in Ashraf, for more than five months. She passed away on September 21, 2011.

According to Camp Liberty daily reports, the issue of Bardia’s body was followed up with the UNAMI monitors by residents’ representatives in the meetings of March 21 and 22, April 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 30, and may 1, 9 and 11 but it reached nowhere.

It is said that the GoI has asked the Iranian regime’s embassy in Baghdad to make a decision about this issue while Mr. Amir Mostowfian was a political refugee in Germany, a persistent opponent of the Iranian regime, and was recognized as a protected person under the Fourth Geneva Convention in 2004. To pave the way for any involvement of the Iranian regime and its embassy in this issue is totally outrageous and a sign of serving the criminal mullahs of Iran.

The Iranian resistance calls on the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner of refugees to oblige the GoI to deliver Bardia’s body to his family to be buried.

Shahriar Kia is a member of the Iranian opposition (PMOI /MEK). He is a human rights activist and political analyst on Iran and the Middle East.