Iraq frees jailed Iranian group

The fate of 36 members of an Iranian opposition group has taken another turn after Iraq’s chief prosecutor ordered them released.

Police in Diyala province, said the men were taken to Baghdad late yesterday by security forces dispatched from the capital. He refused to give other details. Iraqi government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the case.

However, the resistance group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, claimed many of the men were severely weakened from a hunger strike to protest their nearly three-month detention.

Yesterday Iraq’s chief prosecutor Ghadanfar Mahmoud issued a blanket order for police to release the detainees, who have been held since a raid on their camp in northern Iraq in July.

Iraqi judicial authorities did not pursue charges and have said the men should be freed.