MKO's Swedish lawyer in Iraq

8 April 2004

A Swedish attorney, who has recently visited MKO detention camp in Iraq, said there's the possibility of extradition of MKO members who are under control of coalition forces to Iraq.

The United States decided last December that members of the opposition group would be expelled from Iraq, and although it decided that they should not be sent to Iran, Swedish activists and lawyers are worried that they will end up there.

Some Swedish media said that 100 MKO members have Swedish citizenship, but according to Kenneth Lewis, Swedish attorney, only 25 MKO members are Swedish citizens. Five of them are citizens and 20 others have Swedish passports.

Their attorney has stressed that the citizens in MKO's camp in Iraq are women.

Meanwhile, a former MKO member declared that the passports in the hand of Mojahedin are not their real passports and Mojahedin want to misuse the identities of the real holders.

Lewis, who recently returned from a trip to the camp, where he interviewed 80 Mujahedin fighters with Swedish ties, has agreed to press the Swedish government to protect their rights.

Meanwhile, Maria Haakonsson, foreign ministry spokeswoman, said: this country can't confirm how many people with ties to Sweden are being held in the camp Ashraf.

She also said: "US had asked Sweden to accept all the Mojahedin fighters with legal ties to the Scandinavian country. The US has been in contact with us to see if Sweden can take in these people."