Spanish judge probes alleged massacre at Iranian camp in Iraq

DPA: A judge at Spain's National Court has launched an investigation into the alleged deaths of 11 Iranians during a police raid on an Iranian refugee camp in Iraq in July, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday. Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Madrid – A judge at Spain's National Court has launched an investigation into the alleged deaths of 11 Iranians during a police raid on an Iranian refugee camp in Iraq in July, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday.

Judge Fernando Andreu has asked Iraqi judicial authorities whether they are investigating allegations that Iraqi police used violence in their raid on Camp Ashraf in an attempt to establish a police station there.

Eleven people were allegedly killed and about 400 injured in the violence in the camp, which 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.

Spain recently approved a law limiting judges' authority to probe human rights cases abroad mainly to cases involving Spanish citizens or suspects present in Spain.

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.