The terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization bars its penitent members from leaving the organization and joining their families, an Iranian envoy says.
There are some "remorseful Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members [at Iraq’s] Camp Ashraf who wish to join their families but are prevented from leaving the camp by the group’s leaders," Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Danaei-far, told Mehr news agency on Wednesday.
He also made a reference to the "frequent" reports on infighting at the camp over such issues and said, "We hope the incoming [Iraqi] government applies more pressure [on the terror group] and helps reunite youth with their families and hands the criminals over to the judiciaries."
The Iraq-based MKO is listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community.
Founded in the 1960s, the MKO has masterminded terrorist operations in Iran and Iraq, killing thousands of people and wounding many more.
The group is especially notorious in Iran for having sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, US troops disarmed the MKO terrorists at Iraq’s Camp Ashraf, where they were based, and surrounded it until Iraqi forces took over responsibility for the camp in 2009.
The Public Prosecutor of the Iraqi High Tribunal, Jaafar al-Mousawi, stated in mid-August that investigations have also incriminated MKO members in playing a leading role in the killings of Iraqi civilians.
Mousawi further commented that the terrorist group had supported Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime, aiding in the suppression of the Iraqi people’s uprising in 1991 and the torture and massacre of innocent people in the northern and southern regions of the country.