Camp Liberty resident passed away due to lack of access to medical services

• 14 residents of Ashraf and Liberty camps have died due to medical blockade

Mr. Reza Nasiri, 46, a resident of Camp Liberty, passed away in a hospital in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon, April 24, due to lack of access to medical services, delay in his transfer to hospital and obstructions created in his treatment. 
He has been fighting against the religious fascism ruling Iran for the past 24 years within the ranks of thePMOI. He had a kidney transplant in 1997 and had been under medical care. He faced serious problems when siege on Ashraf started in 2009, however, doctors at the medical center in Ashraf, using the equipment available, provided him with the basic care. After his transfer to Liberty and lack of equipment he was deprived of the care that led to complications in his kidney. 
When he was transferred to hospital last December, Iraqi secret police under the command of the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister caused obstructions in his treatments. In a letter to Gyorgy Busztin, Martin Kobler’s deputy, on December 12, he wrote: 'I, Reza Nassiri Taymour. I suffer from acute kidney problem but in the months I have been in this camp I am facing a shortage of my medicine. Finally yesterday, I went to Baghdad. I should say first that from the outset we faced a wave of ill treatment, insult, humiliation, and barbaric behaviorThe agent accompanying us from the intelligence ... He obstructed my tests at the hospital under the pretext that it is 12:30 and administrative working hours is over. In particular he told a nurse that “don’t attend to them”... he refused to let us go to the office of the head of the hospital to resolve any problems with him.'
He wrote on December 13, 2012 to the UNAMI Human Rights Officer and the UNHCR representative:
'as a patient in camp Liberty my sole desire is to enjoy adequate medical services within the framework of international human rights laws, and we should have free access to medical services not treated as prisoners and I believe that you as humanitarian organization can change this situation that Iraqis have created.'

After much delay, specialists examined him and to get exact diagnosis, they asked for immediate Biopsy from his Kidney. But continued obstructions by the Prime Minister’s committee meant that this did not take place for a month and a half. If there was no medical blockade, this would have been possible to do in a few days.
On Monday, April 22, Reza’s condition deteriorated and became critical. His friends took him to the clinic at Liberty. The clinic transferred Reza to the hospital the next day while he was in a coma. He died in the hospital today. Reza Nasiri, is the 14th Liberty resident who dies as a result of medical blockade at Ashraf and Liberty. Before him, at Liberty, two other residents, Mansour Koufe’i on March 12 and Hossein Barzmehri on April 13, died due to lack of basic medical necessities. 
In the NCRI statement on March 14 reads:'On the one hand, Liberty residents are denied minimum medical facilities which they had in their own clinic at Ashraf and the GOI prevents their transfer to Liberty, and on the other, the Iraqi clinic in Liberty lacks minimum necessities and preliminary equipment needed to take care of emergency cases, and the residents have no free access to medical services.'
The Iranian Resistance stresses that the cruel siege imposed on Camp Liberty residents is a blatant crime against humanity and those responsible for it and those who facilitate it are liable to prosecution and should be punished. The Iranian Resistance calls on the US government and the United Nation to take immediate measures in order to end the inhumane medical siege imposed on Camp Liberty and to lift restrictions on the transfer of medical equipments from Ashraf to Liberty and allow the residents to have free access to medical services in Iraq at their own expenses.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 24, 2013