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Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has called for the extradition of the members of the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to the Islamic Republic to stand trial. |
“The leaders and members of the MKO must be extradited to Iran to receive punishment for their crimes,” IRNA quoted Amoli Larijani as saying on Wednesday.
“The group has shed the blood of over 17,000 Iranian citizens, including senior government figures and ordinary people, and the Westerners should know that the Iranian nation will never forget the crimes of the MKO and its supporters,” he noted.
The Iranian judiciary chief also referred to the numerous crimes of the MKO in Iraq, adding that the recent decision by the United States to remove the group from the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations proves “that the West has transformed combating terrorism to a tool to pressure independent countries.”
On September 21, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the decision. Later in the day, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that a public announcement about the removal of the MKO from the list of terrorist organization would be made by October 1.
“I warn the US administration that the Iranian nation and government will never forget the MKO’s crimes against Iranians,” the Iranian judiciary chief asserted.
The MKO fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where it enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the eastern province of Diyala, near the Iranian border.
The group also cooperated with Saddam in the massacres of Iraqi Kurds and in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq.
The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.
Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been putting pressure on Baghdad to resist the calls.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/27/263732/mko-members-must-be-extradited-to-iran/