Outrage
Over Imminent
Execution Of Iraqi Women
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali Al-Fadhily
03 March, 2007
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD, Mar 2 (IPS)
- Three young women accused of joining the Iraqi insurgency movement
and engaging in "terrorism" have been sentenced to death,
provoking protest from rights organisations fearing that this could
be the start of more executions of women in post-Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The execution of the three
-- Wassan Talib, Zaineb Fadhil and Liqa Omar Muhammad -- and a fourth,
Samar Sa'ad 'Abdullah, found guilty of murdering five members of her
family, are scheduled to begin Mar. 3, according a member of the citizens
group Brussels Tribunal.
All four are being held in
the Khadamiya female prison in northern Baghdad.
One of the three alleged
"terrorists", Muhammad, 25, gave birth to a daughter after
her arrest and is still nursing the child in prison. A second, Talib,
31, is also in prison with her three-year-old child, according to Amnesty
International.
Talib and Fadhil, 25, were
sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on 31
August 2006 for the 2005 murder of several members of Iraqi security
forces in the Baghdad district of Hay al-Furat. Both women denied any
involvement. Fadhil reportedly claimed that she was abroad at the time
of the alleged killings, according to Amnesty International.
Muhammad was sentenced to
death on 6 February 2006 by the CCCI, for kidnapping an official from
the 'Green Zone' in 2005, according to sources in the Iraqi Lawyers'
Union. Her husband is said to have been detained and accused of the
same crime.
It is not known whether the
three alleged "terrorists" will lodge appeals. But while this
is possible, it is unlikely they will be successful without their own
legal representation, according to sources.
An appeal by Abdullah was
earlier rejected and she faces imminent execution, according to Amnesty
International.
Many lawyers here are interpreting
the death sentences on the three alleged "terrorists" as an
attempt by the Iraqi regime to intimidate insurgents. Two of those sentenced
to death -- Fadhil and Mohammad -- were accused of joining their husbands
and two members of their families in their alleged crimes, according
to the Iraqi Lawyers' Union.
Some Iraqis here have openly
expressed surprise and disbelief that these women could have been involved
in any insurgency.
It was a question of honour
for Iraqi men that their women did not participate in any form of violence,
they told IPS.
Independent lawyers have
expressed strong criticism of the trials, saying they were "unfair"
and violated international conventions.
The accused were denied the
right of legal defence, Walid Hayali, a lawyer, said. He was barred
from representing the three in court, he added.
"No lawyer was given
the opportunity to do his job," a close friend of Talib confirmed
to IPS.
But the right to independent
legal representation was guaranteed under international law, lawyers
here said.
The passing of a death sentence
on the mother of a newly born child was also in violation of a specific
UN safeguard, they added.
Iraqis questioned here said
they believed the executions, if allowed to take place, would raise
the level of violence across Iraq.
"This won't go unpunished,"
Fadhil Aziz, 40, from the Amiriya district in Baghdad told IPS.
"The U.S. and their
Iraqi collaborators must pay for the crimes they are committing against
our honour," he warned.
The impending executions
are likely to increase the exodus of Iraqis out of the country.
"I am taking my family
anywhere in the world rather than staying here and facing this,"
Abi Muhannad, an Iraqi teacher from the Kadhamiya district in Baghdad
told IPS.
The UN estimates that some
two million Iraqis have already fled the country. Approximately 50,000
are leaving every month, threatening to overwhelm other Middle Eastern
countries, particularly Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Approximately one million
are today living in Syria and up to 750,000 in Jordan, according to
the UN High Commission of Refugees.
Roughly 40 percent of Iraq's
middle class is believed to have fled the country since the U.S. invasion
in 2003, according to the UN.
After the overthrow of Saddam
Hussein's regime, the American occupation authorities suspended the
death penalty. But in August 2004, the new interim Iraqi government
reinstated it for crimes including murder, kidnapping and threats to
national security. In October 2005 a tough new anti-terrorism law was
introduced, setting capital punishment for "proving, planning,
financing and enabling" terrorism.
Last year Iraqi courts sentenced
235 people to death and over 6,000 to life imprisonment, according to
the London daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.
There are over 2,000 women
classified as "security detainees", according to Mohamed Khorshid,
quoted by the newspaper.
It is not known for certain
how many have been executed since August 2004, but it is believed the
figure is between 50 and 100. During 2006 at least 65 men and women
were executed by the Iraqi government, including former Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist
writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has
been covering the Middle East for several years.)