Iraq says presence of Iranian dissident group over

By Ibrahim Salih

BAGHDAD

Iraqi authorities have announced the relocation of all members of the opposition People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) group.

In a statement on Saturday, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said the PMOI presence on Iraqi territories has ended.

“This file has been closed,” al-Abadi said.

According to the statement, 280 PMOI members -- the last batch of the group members -- have been relocated from Camp Liberty on the outskirts of Baghdad to Albania in cooperation with UNHCR.

The PMOI members used to live in Camp Ashraf in northern Iraq, but were transferred to Camp Liberty under a deal between Iraq and the UN to relocate them to a third country.

PMOI was established in 1965 with the aim of overthrowing Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

More than 30,000 PMOI members were estimated to have been executed by Iranian authorities in 1988.

The dissident group was disarmed following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.