Wassan Talib, age 31, Zainab Fadhil, age 25, and Liqa Omar Muhammad, age 26, were accused of participating in the resistance against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and sentenced to death by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Court. The three women, who denied the charges against them, were prevented from seeing a lawyer and tried in violation of the Geneva Convention.

The three women are being held at Baghdad’s Al-Kadhimiya Prison. Talib has a 3-year-old daughter imprisoned with her, and Liqa has a 1-year-old daughter she gave birth to in prison.

The World Tribunal on Iraq and the BRussels Tribunal Executive Committee launched an international campaign to demand the release of the women.

“The United States and its local conspirators, in creating hundreds of thousands of widows and reducing life in Iraq to a struggle for bare survival have placed women in the crosshairs and now on the gallows,” organizers of the two groups said in a statement.

“We celebrate the numberless acts of resistance of Iraqi women, whether their resilience in the face of a culture of rape, torture and murder by U.S. and Iraqi forces, their fortitude in continuing to give life amid state-sponsored genocide, their dignity as they try to maintain a semblance of normality for their children and families, their courage in burying their husbands, sons, daughter or brothers, or in direct action against an illegal and failed military occupation.”

The groups call for protests in front of every Iraqi embassy in the world. And they ask that individuals call and write to local and national newspapers to pressure human rights groups to intervene and to write to the Iraqi authorities to demand that the immoral and illegal execution be halted and the women released.

The Iraqi government can’t charge anyone with taking part in the resistance, the groups say. Citing a 1982 resolution of the U.N. General Assembly, they say international law affirms “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”

People are asked to send faxes and e-mails with the subject line: “Re: The Imminent execution of Wassan Talib, Zainab Fadhil and Liqa Omar Muhammad” to:

Minister of Justice Hashim Al-Shilbi
head-minister@iraq-justice.org

Prime Minster Nouri Al-Maliki: iraqigov@yahoo.com

President Jalal Talabani: www.iraqipresidency.net

Int’l Committee of the Red Cross: 011-41-22-733-2057 press.gva@icrc.org

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: 011-41-22-917-9008/ tb-petitions@ohchr.org

UN Representant in Iraq Said Arikat:  212-963-2800 arikat@un.org

IRIN News Agency: 011-971-4-368-1024 pat@irnnews.org

Amnesty International:  011-44-20-7956-1157 cjurgens@amnesty.org

Al-Jazeera: 011-974-442-6865 press.int@aljazeera.net

Reuters: 011-44-20-7542-4064 Eileen.wise@reuters.com

BBC:  011-44-20-7557-1254/Michael.grade@bbc.co.uk

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