Death sentence passed in Saudi Arabia on witchcraft charge

[struggle4progress]

Amsterdam News.Net
Friday 27th November, 2009

... Ali Sibat, a Lebanese psychic who made predictions about the future on a satellite TV program from Beirut, was charged when he entered Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage in May 2008.

He was then sentenced to death by decapitation on 9th November this year ...

The crime of witchcraft is vaguely defined in the justice system of Saudi Arabia, where Islamic law gives individual judges leeway to effect draconian sentences.

Dozens of people are arrested each year on charges such as witchcraft, black magic and fortune telling ...

http://www.amsterdamnews.net/story/570534

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's worse than that article says

It says he can admit the 'witchcraft' and just be deported; but others have been lashed and executed for it:

The Human Rights Watch report presented a series of cases in the country, including that of Saudi woman Fawza Falih, who was sentenced to death by beheading in 2006 for the alleged crimes of "witchcraft, recourse to jinn (supernatural beings)," and animal sacrifice.

On November 2, 2007, Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian pharmacist, was executed for sorcery in Riyadh after he was found guilty of having tried "through sorcery" to separate a married couple, said the rights group.

In another case, a criminal court in the western seaport city of Jiddah convicted Eritrean national Muhammad Burhan in October 2006, for being a "charlatan," based on a leather-bound personal phone booklet containing writing in Eritrea's Tigrinya alphabet.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and 300 lashes, and then was deported after serving more than double the time in prison.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQ_jb3NeJqD5cjGvkNxW5Jlje9AwD9C6JAC80

[struggle4progress]

2. Saudi Arabia: Witchcraft and Sorcery Cases on the Rise (HRW)

... In March 2008, Human Rights Watch asked a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Justice to clarify the definition of the crime of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia and the evidence necessary for a court to prove such a crime. The official confirmed that no legal definition exists and could not clarify what evidence has probative value in witchcraft trials. Saudi Arabia has no penal code and in almost all cases gives judges the discretion to define acts they deem criminal and to set attendant punishments ...

In February 2008, Human Rights Watch protested the 2006 "discretionary" conviction and sentencing to death for witchcraft of Fawza Falih, a Saudi citizen. Minister of Justice Abdullah Al al-Shaikh responded that Human Rights Watch had a preconceived Western notion of shari'a, but did not answer the organization's questions about Falih's arbitrary arrest, coerced confession, unfair trial, and wrongful conviction. She remains on death row in Quraiyat prison, close to the border with Jordan, and is reportedly in bad health ...

In another case, a Jeddah criminal court on October 8, 2006 convicted Eritrean national Muhammad Burhan for "charlatanry," based on a leather-bound personal phone booklet belonging to Burhan with writings in the Tigrinya alphabet used in Eritrea. Prosecutors classified the booklet as a "talisman" and the court accepted that as evidence, sentencing him to 20 months in prison and 300 lashes. No further evidence for the charge was introduced at trial. Burhan has since been deported, after serving more than double the time in prison to which the court had sentenced him.

On November 2, 2007, Saudi Arabia executed Mustafa Ibrahim for sorcery in Riyadh. Ibrahim, an Egyptian working as a pharmacist in the northern town of `Ar'ar, was found guilty of having tried "through sorcery" to separate a married couple, according to a Ministry of Interior statement ...

Saudi Arabia: Witchcraft and Sorcery Cases on the Rise
Cancel Death Sentences for “Witchcraft”
November 24, 2009
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/24/saudi-arabia-witchcraft-and-sorcery-cases-rise

[WCGreen]

3. Ever wonder what the US of A would look like if the Fundies got their way....

There you have it...

[uberllama42]

4. When will the world be rid of this vile superstition?

How many innocent people have been killed over the centuries by the agents of ignorance?

I can scarcely comprehend the absurdity of this story. Satellite TVs and judges who believe in witchcraft coexist in the same country. We should all be thankful that the people who believe in witchcraft in this country don't have the authority to decapitate people.