Spanish judge summons Iraqi officer over raid on refugee camp

Jan 4, 2011, 14:17 GMT

Madrid - A judge at Spain's National Court has summoned an Iraqi lieutenant general for questioning over the alleged deaths of 11 Iranians during a raid on an Iranian refugee camp in Iraq in July 2009, judicial sources said Tuesday.

Judge Fernando Andreu wants to question Abdul Hussein al-Shemmari on March 8 about the attack, which allegedly killed 11 people, injured about 500 others, and led to the abduction of 36 others at Camp Ashraf.

Two individual plaintiffs lodged a judicial complaint against the lieutenant general. The charges against him include killings, torture and illegal arrests.

Al-Shemmari was not expected to show up at the National Court, but that would not prevent Andreu from pursuing his investigation, the daily El Pais said.

Andreu earlier asked Iraqi judicial authorities whether they were investigating allegations that Iraqi security forces used undue violence in their raid on Camp Ashraf in an attempt to establish a police station there.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry replied that an investigation had been launched, but gave so few details that the judge was not satisfied with the answer.

Camp Ashraf had housed thousands of members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedin Khalq for two decades. Iraqi authorities blamed the violence on rioting by the refugees.

The Ashraf case has no link with Spain, but Andreu deemed himself competent to investigate it, arguing that it could violate the 1949 Geneva Convention on the humanitarian protection of civilians in war zones.

Andreu's probe was the first one investigating the Iraqi authorities on charges of seriously violating international law, human rights lawyer Joan Garces said.

Spain's National Court is known for its cross-border human rights investigations.

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