AI: Urgent Action - Iraq: Fear of imminent execution/death penalty
| AI: Urgent Action - Iraq: Fear of imminent execution/death penalty ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Amnesty International
URGENT ACTION
Iraq: Fear of imminent execution/death penalty
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 14/005/200709 February 2007
UA 33/07 Fear of imminent execution/death penalty
IRAQ Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah (f), aged about 25
Wassan Talib (f), aged 31
Zeynab Fadhil (f), aged 25
Liqa’ Qamar (f), aged 25
The four women named above have been sentenced to death, and at least one of
them is in imminent danger of execution. The president has the power to pardon
them, or commute their sentences.
Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah was sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of
Iraq (CCCI) on 15 August 2005 for the murder of her uncle, his wife and three
of their children in the al-Khudra’ district of Baghdad. She reportedly blamed
the killings on her fiancé, who, she said, had carried them out in order to rob
her uncle. Her fiancé was said to have been arrested, but Amnesty International
does not know what charges, if any, have been brought against him. Samar Sa’ad
‘Abdullah's death sentence was upheld on appeal, and she is facing imminent
execution.
In a separate case, Wassan Talib and Zeynab Fadhil were sentenced to death by
the 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 they
had been involved, and Zeynab Fadhil reportedly claimed that she was abroad at
the time of the killings.
Liqa’ Qamar was sentenced to death on 6 February 2006 by the CCCI, for a
kidnapping which reportedly took place in 2005. Her husband is said to have
been detained and accused of the same crime. No further details are available.
All four women are held at Baghdad's al-Kadhimiya Prison. Two have young
children with them: Zeynab Fadhil her three-year-old daughter, Liqa' Qamar her
one-year-old daughter, who was born in prison.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The interim government of Iraq reinstated the death penalty in August 2004 for
several offences, including offences against Iraq's internal security,
premeditated murder, drug trafficking and (in certain circumstances)
kidnapping. The first three executions were carried out on 1 September 2005,
and during 2006 at least 65 men and women were executed. Among them were 27
people reportedly hanged in Baghdad on 6 September, and a further 11 hanged in
the city of Arbil on 21 September. Among those executed in 2006 was former
president Saddam Hussain. So far this year at least two people are known to
have been executed: Saddam Hussain’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti,
and the former head of the Revolutionary Court, ‘Awad Hamad al-Bandar al-Sa’
dun. Both men were executed by hanging on 15 January. They had been sentenced
to death by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal in connection with the killing
of 148 people from the village of al-Dujail, which had followed an attempted
assassination of Saddam Hussain in 1982.
... © Copyright Amnesty International
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Amnesty International appeal: http://web.amnesty.
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