Statement by the U.S. Committee for Ashraf Residents
WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 29, 2023 – On behalf of hundreds of Iranian Americans with loved ones in Ashraf 3, the U.S. Committee for Ashraf Residents applauds members of U.S. Congress for introducing a bipartisan House resolution H.Res.627 sponsored by Congressmen Lance Gooden (R-TX) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), joined by over 40 cosponsors, to call on the U.S. government to ensure the safety, security and full protection of our families in Ashraf 3 in Albania.
The Congressional initiative underscores that Ashraf 3 residents, members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) whom the United Nations helped resettle as refugees in Albania, have been promised “the rights stipulated in the Geneva Convention 1951, in the European Human Rights Convention and in the whole international legislation,” by the government of Albania in an April 19, 2016 letter to a European Parliament Vice-President.
H.Res.627 underlines that “… over 900 women and men of Ashraf 3 are former political prisoners who witnessed prison crimes of the Iranian regime, and many of them are witnesses of the 1988 massacre and other political killings in Iran, among them eyewitnesses of crimes committed by Ebrahim Raisi, who must be fully protected for potential testimonies before any international courts investigating the killings in Iran.”
It recalls that “In November 2021, the Swedish Judiciary moved the whole court in Stockholm to Albania for two weeks to facilitate hearing testimonies of seven former Iranian political prisoners now residing in Ashraf 3, who were considered key witnesses for a trial related to the 1988 massacre.”
The bipartisan initiative “calls on the United States Government, in cooperation with our ally Albania, to ensure the full protection of the Iranian political refugees in Ashraf 3 in Albania and for them to benefit from all rights stipulated in the Geneva Convention 1951 and the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security, and protection of property, as well as freedom of expression and assembly.”
The resolution also condemned Iran’s regime for “the 1988 massacres and the massacres of protesters against this regime in the recent uprisings”. It said it “stands with the people of Iran, who are legitimately defending their rights for freedom against repression, and condemns the brutal killing of Iranian protesters by the Iranian regime.”
The U.S. Committee for Ashraf Residents urges the U.S. Government to hear the call by the U.S. Congress in both chambers and take all necessary actions to ensure that the Iranian regime’s pressure would not hinder the rights of the Ashraf 3 residents or threaten the safety and security of our loved ones.
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