USCCAR Condemns Execution of PMOI Affiliates in Iran, Calls on Secretary Clinton to Denounce the Executions

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR) strongly condemns the vengeful execution today of political prisoners Jaafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj-Aqai and calls on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to swiftly and strongly denounce this heinous crime.

The Committee also urges Secretary Clinton to promptly remove the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Iran's principal opposition, from the FTO list.  The unjustified blacklisting of the PMOI has not only been a major impediment to democratic change in Iran but has also been used by the governments of Iran and Iraq to subject our loved ones in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, and inside Iran, to murder and inhumane treatment.

Kazemi, 47, a political prisoner for 11 years, and Haj-Aqai, 62, a political prisoner for 7 years, were family members of several residents of Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 members of PMOI, "Protected Persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention. These two heroes of the resistance for freedom against the religious tyranny ruling Iran were executed on the charge of "moharebeh," or 'waging war on God,' for visiting their loved ones in Camp Ashraf and encouraging their families to do the same; participating, filming and taking photos in the anti-government uprisings; interviewing families of residents of Camp Ashraf and collecting funds for the PMOI members there.

Today's executions make it abundantly clear that the Iraqi government's two-year long barbaric siege of Camp Ashraf and the escalating suppression of its residents at the behest of Tehran – demonstrated by the January 7 assault on Camp Ashraf by Iran's agents and fully backed by the Iraqi forces – is the flip side of Tehran's inhuman executions of PMOI members and affiliates in Iran.

The continued U.S. inaction vis-a-vis the deteriorating situation in Camp Ashraf and its silence following last December's execution of another Camp Ashraf and PMOI affiliate, Ali Saremi, as well as Washington's refusal to heed a bi-partisan call in the U.S. House of Representatives to end the unjustified designation of the PMOI, has further emboldened Camp Ashraf enemies in Tehran and Baghdad to step up the suppression of the PMOI members with impunity.

SOURCE US Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR)