SHALIZA HASSANALI
senior reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Less than a fortnight after Sabirah Khalidah Waheed completed a six-year jail term in Iraq for her affiliation with the terrorist group ISIS, the Iraqi government is threatening to charge and imprison her again.
This is the latest development in Waheed’s saga according to her attorney Criston J Williams.
Waheed, 33, completed her sentence on July 26, clearing the way for her to become the first T&T national deported from the conflict zone. Her two young children, one of whom was born in Iraq, were incarcerated with her.
Williams said although travel documents were requested from the National Security Ministry last month for Waheed and her children, he is still awaiting positive feedback.
He claimed the T&T Government has been failing in its obligation to protect Waheed and her children who have been made stateless in the conflict zone since their sentence ended last month. The trio are still in prison.
Williams said he recently listened to two voice notes from Waheed. In the first, she pleaded with a BBC reporter for help, stating that the T&T Government had turned its back on her. In the second voice note she is heard saying that she needs her documents to return home because the Iraqi government is threatening to charge and jail her again.
“The issue is that she is in their country illegally and they are supposed to give her another charge and another jail term. Remember when she faces another charge is not just her alone, it is her and her two children,” Williams said.
He described treatment meted out to Waheed and her children by the T&T authorities as cold-hearted.
“That is why the Iraqi government has adopted that approach,” he said.
Williams said he plans to write the ministry again asking them to deal with matter expeditiously and not cause national shame for T&T.
“Sabirah is very desperate. My first concern is really and truly to facilitate their return,” he said.
