IRAQ: NINE WOMEN FACE IMMINENT EXECUTION

Amnesty International reported that at least three women have been executed since early June. At least nine other women under sentence of death were in imminent danger of execution, as Iraq’s Presidential Council had ratified their death sentences, and the authorities transferred them to the 5th section of Baghdad's al-Kadhimiya Prison, which is where condemned prisoners are held immediately before they are executed. One of the women executed, Qassima Hamid, from Baghdad, had been sentenced to death some time around the middle of 2006 after being convicted of murder and kidnapping. One of the women in imminent danger, Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah, was sentenced to death in August 2005 for the murder of her uncle, his wife and one of their children. She blamed her fiancé, saying he had committed the killings in order to rob her uncle. Samar Sa’ad ‘Abdullah’s death sentence was upheld by the Cassation Court in February 2007. At her trial, she alleged that after her arrest she had been held at a police station in Hay al-Khadhra in Baghdad and tortured by being beaten with a cable, beaten on the soles of her feet and subjected to electric shocks to make her "confess." The judge failed to order an investigation into her allegations, and sentenced her to death after two hearings. Among the other women who have been transferred to the 5th section of al-Kadhimiya Prison were Shuruq Hassun, Sabrine Nasser, Samira ‘Abdullah, Um Hussain ("Mother of Hussain" - real name not known), Hanan (full name not known), Dhikra Fakhry and Wassan Talib. Another woman, Lamya ‘Adnan, is believed to have died in prison recently, for unknown reasons.