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Writers in Prison - Ibtissam Berto Sulaiman al-Dakhil

Ruth Fainlight

Published 19 August 2002

Ibtissam Berto Sulaiman al-Dakhil, an Iraqi journalist formerly married to a Kuwaiti citizen, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kuwait in June 1991 for allegedly writing for an Iraqi government paper during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. She claims she was threatened and told that she and her daughters would be assaulted if she did not co-operate. Recent information suggests that she might have been conditionally released under a deportation order. But she is not willing to be returned to Iraq, and it therefore seems that she might have to remain in prison or under severe restrictions indefinitely unless the order is revoked or she finds another country of domicile to accept her.

Appeals that her deportation order be lifted can be sent to:

The Amir of the State of Kuwait Sheik Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah

Bayan Palace

Bayan

Kuwait 13008.

Fax: 00 965 539 3069

Ruth Fainlight is a poet and a member of English PEN's Writers in Prison committee

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