AN Oxford University graduate, who is travelling to Iraq with medical aid, believes he is risking up to five years in prison.

Justin Alexander, aged 22 and from Stow, is determined to highlight the impact of international trade sanctions on the ordinary Iraqis.

Justin, who is a member of the congregation at St Edwards Church in Stow and who attended Moreton's Dormer House School, will be shunning Foreign Office advice simply by travelling to Iraq on November 24.

But, he will also be breaking the law by delivering emergency medical supplies without the required export licences.

If prosecuted the physics and philosophy graduate, who is putting a career in the City on hold to make the trip, said he and his two travelling companions could face prison.

A day before they leave they will deliver a letter to Tony Blair at Number 10 Downing Street calling for an end to sanctions and explaining why they decided to break them.

He said he was not looking for trouble, but was prepared to be arrested if it alerted people to what was happening in Iraq.

Justin's three-man delegation, calling itself Voices in the Wilderness, includes boat-builder Dave Rolstone from Wales and Essex vet Richard Byrne. As there are no direct flights to Iraq they will first fly to Amman in Jordan.

They will then make an 18-hour bus trip across the desert to Baghdad where they plan to visit hospitals and UN officials and document what they see before returning home in December.

Justin has scoured reports and statements from the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Amnesty International on sanctions.

He has also met members of the UK's Iraqi community in London and said he is appalled at how the sanctions effect the poor and children.

UNICEF estimate that as many as 500,000 children under five have died as a result of the sanctions, which were imposed after the Gulf War.

"It is never right to massacre innocent children in the way we have been doing, whatever our view of their government," said Justin. "When I learnt about the suffering of the Iraqi people under sanctions I was devastated. How can this be done in our name, how can our governments be doing this?"

Justin conceded that the few bags of medical supplies they were taking were "a drop in the ocean", but added: "The trip's far more about symbolism; about telling people what is happening in Iraq."

He said the Iraqi people had had no way of telling the world about their suffering and added: "I intend to use the freedom and privilege I have to speak up for the Iraqi people who have no voice themselves."