GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — More than 400 prominent women, including four Nobel laureates and several former presidents and prime ministers, demanded Tuesday that Iran immediately release engineer and activist Zahra Tabari, fearing she faces imminent execution.

The urgent public appeal charged that Tabari, a 67-year-old mother, was handed a death sentence in October following “a sham 10-minute trial, held remotely via videoconference without her chosen legal representation.”

The letter, which was organized by a London-based association of families of victims called Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran, said Tabari faced “execution solely for holding a banner bearing the words ‘Woman, Resistance, Freedom.’”

The banner was an apparent play on “Woman, Life, Freedom,” a popular slogan during the 2022 nationwide protests sparked by the death in Iranian custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

There was no mention in Iranian official media about her case, nor confirmation that she had been sentenced to death.

Nonetheless, a group of eight independent United Nations (UN) rights experts also issued a statement Tuesday demanding Iran “immediately stop the execution” of Tabari, saying she had been found guilty of “baghi” or armed rebellion, based solely on the banner and an unpublished audio message.

“Ms. Tabari’s case shows a pattern of serious violations of international human rights law regarding fair trial guarantees and the inappropriate use of capital punishment for broad and ill-defined national security offenses,” they said.

The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the world body, stressed that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Iran, restricts use of the death penalty to the “most serious crimes.”