Spanish judge may probe massacre at Iranian camp in Iraq (Roundup)

Dec 1, 2009, 12:48 GMT

Madrid - A judge at Spain's National Court said Tuesday he may launch an investigation into the alleged deaths of 11 Iranians during a military raid on the camp of an Iranian opposition group in late July.

Judge Fernando Andreu said he had asked Iraqi judicial authorities whether they were investigating the incidents at Camp Ashraf.

Soldiers and police have been accused of staging a massacre during a raid aimed at establishing a police station in the camp.

Andreu said two private persons had lodged a complaint against Iraqi Lieutenant-General Abdul Hussein al-Shemmari on charges of 11 killings, 36 illegal arrests, and serious injuries caused to some 500 people.

The Ashraf Camp housed some 3,500 people linked to the People's Mujahidin of Iran (PMOI), which the Iranian government considers a terrorist group.

Iraqi authorities blamed the violence on rioting by the exiled Iranians.

Spain recently approved a law limiting judges' authority to probe human rights cases abroad mainly to cases involving Spanish citizens or suspects present in Spain.

Prosecutors argued that Andreu was not competent to investigate the Ashraf case, because it had no link with Spain.

The judge, however, argued that the alleged massacre could violate the 1949 Geneva Convention on the humanitarian protection of civilians in war zones.

Iran blames the PMOI for several high-profile political assassinations. After the group was expelled from France in the 1980s, Iraq's then president Saddam Hussein allocated it a military base near the border with Iran.