An Iraqi court has mandated the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to return thousands of hectares of land that the terrorist group occupied to set up its military base in eastern Iraq.
Sheikh Ali al-Zahiri, head of the support council of the Iraqi city of Khalis, said on Tuesday that the Diyala Province court has ordered the terrorist group to return 5,000 hectares of land located inside Camp Ashraf, where the MKO terrorists are located, to the Iraqi owners, IRIB reported.
The outlawed MKO fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where it enjoyed the support of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the northeastern town of Khalis, Diyala.
The court ruling also required the MKO to pay compensation to 150 Iraqi families for the terrorist group’s illegitimate use of the land over the past three decades.
The development comes as hundreds of Diyala residents staged a demonstration last Tuesday, calling for the expulsion of the MKO elements in Iraq. The Iraqis also demanded the return of more than 36,000 hectares of their land occupied by the notorious terrorist organization.
The MKO — listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community — has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranian officials and civilians as well as the people of Iraq.
The MKO cooperated with Saddam in the massacres of Iraqi Kurds and in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq.
Since Saddam was deposed in 2003, the Iraqi government has set numerous deadlines for the terrorist group to leave the country but the MKO has managed to maintain its base with US support.