Iraq’s Finance Minister Baqir al-Zubaidi says the ‘criminal leaders’ of the Mujahidin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group must be put on trial before being expelled from the country.
Iraqi people would never forget “the bitter memory of the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, especially a large number of Kurds from north, during the 1991 uprising (Intifada),” al-Zubaidi said on Tuesday.
The Iraqi minister added that MKO leaders would be put on trial as one of the main perpetrators of these crimes, IRNA reported.
Al-Zubaidi said the Iraqi nation is determined to wipe out terrorist groups from the country at any price.
Members of the MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where they enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up Camp Ashraf in Diyala province, near the Iranian border.
The group has carried out numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The terror organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the north.
Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.
In April, Iraq’s government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad is determined to shut down Camp Ashraf, located in north of the capital, and disband the terrorist group.