From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Nov 25 2009 - 10:27:28 EST
"In 2006 a Jeddah court convicted an Eritrean national Muhammad Burhan for
"charlatanry" because he possessed a phone book that contained writings in
the Tigrinya alphabet used in Eritrea.
Human rights campaigners claim prosecutors classified the booklet as a
"talisman" and the court accepted that as evidence, sentencing him to 20
months in prison and 300 lashes"
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Saudi-Arabia-Ali-Sibat-Sentenced-To-Death-For-Witchcraft-Over-TV-Predictions/Article/200911415466364?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15466364_Saudi_Arabia%3A_Ali_Sibat_Sentenced_To_Death_For_Witchcraft_Over_TV_Predictions
<http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_3576243.html?menu=entertainment.latestheadlines>
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TV Presenter On Death Row For Witchcraft
8:38pm UK, Tuesday November 24, 2009
Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent
A man has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft because he
makes predictions on television.
*
A man has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft because he
makes predictions on television.
Ali Sibat is not even a Saudi national. The Lebanese citizen was only
visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage when he was arrested in Medina last
year.
A court in the city condemned him as a witch on November 9.
The only evidence presented in court was reportedly the claim he appeared
regularly on Lebanese satellite issuing general advice on life and making
predictions about the future.
The case is causing outrage among human rights campaigners but has made
little news elsewhere despite the ludicrous nature of the charges and the
extraordinary severity of Sibat's sentence.
"Saudi courts are sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police,"
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"The crime of witchcraft is being used against all sorts of behavior, with
the cruel threat of state sanctioned executions."
Ali Sibat's supporters say he was denied a lawyer at his trial and was
tricked into making a confession.
He is not the only victim of Saudi Arabia's literal witch hunt. Human Rights
Watch says two other people have been arrested on similar charges in the
last month alone.
It claims a lower court in Jeddah started the trial of a Saudi this month
who was arrested by the religious police and said to have smuggled a book of
witchcraft into the kingdom.
In another case the religious police are said to have arrested for "sorcery"
and "charlatanry" an Asian man accusing him of using supernatural powers to
solve marital disputes and induce others to fall in love.
In 2006 a Jeddah court convicted an Eritrean national Muhammad Burhan for
"charlatanry" because he possessed a phone book that contained writings in
the Tigrinya alphabet used in Eritrea.
Human rights campaigners claim prosecutors classified the booklet as a
"talisman" and the court accepted that as evidence, sentencing him to 20
months in prison and 300 lashes.