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UN Urges Iraq To Find Seven Missing Iranian Exiles


Demonstrators protest outside Camp Ashraf, home to exiled Iranian opposition members, in December 2011.
Demonstrators protest outside Camp Ashraf, home to exiled Iranian opposition members, in December 2011.
A group of UN independent experts are calling on the Iraqi authorities to reveal the fate and location of seven residents of Camp Ashraf who were allegedly abducted last September after an attack that left 52 people dead.

In a statement on December 9, UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez reminded Iraqi authorities that under international law the government must not expel, return, or extradite any person to another state where they would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

Camp Ashraf has housed more than 3,000 Iranian exiles since the 1980s, many of them are members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (aka People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran), a group that opposes Iran's government.

There are allegations that Iraqi security forces took away seven people, six of them women, from the camp after the violence was over.

The UN expressed fears the seven might have been forcibly returned to Iran.
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