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Hasna Ali Yehye Hussein, whose husband Abu Ayyub al-Masri led al-Qaida in Iraq, claims she did not know about his actions
The widow of the former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is to be hanged on Wednesday after a court found her guilty of links to the terrorist mastermind.
Hasna Ali Yehye Hussein was condemned to death despite not being found to have any operational role in a four-year terror campaign directed by her husband, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who was killed during a joint raid by US and Iraqi forces in April 2010.
Her fate appears in contrast to the treatment of the wives of Osama bin Laden. Pakistani authorities say they are likely to be sent back to their respective countries after the death of the al-Qaida leader, who was killed just over a week ago in northern Pakistan.
Ali, from Yemen, has claimed she had no knowledge of her husband's deeds. Iraqi authorities have not alleged that she played a role in the sectarian attacks directed by her husband and another man killed during last year's raid, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
An official from Iraq's justice ministry confirmed that the death sentence was expected to be carried out on 11 May after an order from the serious crimes court was handed down earlier this year.
Egyptian-born Masri and Baghdadi, a former taxi driver, had been the most wanted men in Iraq since their predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed by a bomb dropped from a US jet in June 2006.
Their brutal ends had parallels to the demise of Bin Laden. Like the warlord they once served, their hideout was blown by a trusted courier. Just like Bin Laden they had barely moved from their isolated house for several years, with their wives and children confined to running the home.
In an interview with the Guardian shortly after her capture, Ali said she and her husband had led largely separate lives. "I made no choices in my marriage," she said. "Even when I was with him in the house I was on the first floor and he was living in the cellar. I was not allowed to talk on the telephone or to listen to music or watch TV. There was one TV in the house, but it was in a private room used only by my husband and his group.
"When they told me that he had been involved in killing innocent people, my son was screaming, saying: 'Mama, mama, listen to what they are saying about him, it's impossible.'
"I will lose my children soon - and for what? What have I done, and what have they done to live their life without a mother? All I want is to take them back to my father in Yemen and forget about Iraq. Yes, I have regrets. Of course I do."
Women are rarely jailed in Iraq, but when they are there are few legal protections for them. The presumption of innocence, while hardly a centrepiece of Iraqi justice, seems even less of a tenet for the 400-odd women jailed across the country.
However, in an unusual move, a court earlier this year freed Baghdadi's widow, Wadhi al-Jassem, claiming it had found no evidence that she had committed any crimes.
