Today, 27 days have passed since Safar Zakery, a member of PMOI and a resident of Camp Liberty, Baghdad, was first jailed for a pretense of an accident which he did not cause. Mr. Safar Zakery received a protected card from the U.S. government in 2004, and he was recognized as “protected person” and refugee by UNHCR in 2011, but Iraq is ignoring his status.
See Iraq, Camp Liberty: Third Week of Unlawful Detention of Iranian Dissident
Condemning this hostage taking, a number of residents in Camp Liberty take part in protest every day and demand his release.
One of protest participants said: “Mr. Zakery is under protection of the 4th Geneva Convention and keeping him in jail with no reason is a violation of international laws.”
Another participant said: “we are concerned for Mr. Zakery’s life and there can be no understanding to me on why the judge, Mr. Nasser Moussavi has referred to the embassy of dictatorship ruling Iran in Baghdad the case file of Mr. Zakery who is a political refugee.”
Mr. Zakery is a political refugee from Iran, but the judge has handed over his file to the Iranian regime, through its embassy in Baghdad.
The protesters in Camp Liberty demanded the immediate release of Mr. Zakeri and called on the U.S. government and United Nations for urgent action on this issue.
According to reports and information that has reached the Iranian Resistance, judge Nasser Moussavi is a close associate of Maliki, and he has been ordered to keep Mr. Safar Zakery in prison using whatever pretext.
Moussavi has said that since it would not have been possible to detain Mr. Zakery for a long time merely for a traffic accident, he had been compelled to open the case of illegal residence against him to keep him in detention. Preventing Mr. Zakery’s transfer to the hospital for his surgery was also upon orders that Moussavi had received.
