Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Lebanese TV psychic to death for 'witchcraft'. Will his government help him?
Elaheh Khayyat
(Elaheh Khayyat is the pen name of a Lebanon-based journalist and human rights activist.)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009
"Once again, the spotlight is on Saudi Arabia for all the wrong reasons. This time, the kingdom is attracting criticism for condemning a self-styled psychic to death on the vague charge of "witchcraft".
Ali Sibat, who is Lebanese, was arrested by Saudi Arabia's notorious moral police at his hotel room in Medina on May 7 last year, while in town for a pilgrimage. After languishing in jail for a year and a half, he was sentenced to death in November for reportedly practising witchcraft. His lawyer has said Sibat was told that if he confessed to witchcraft, he would be released and allowed to return home.....
Astonishingly, Saudi Arabia also has no written penal code, meaning that those who live in or visit the kingdom have no way of knowing whether or not their actions constitute criminal activity. Accordingly, judges have the power to determine what behaviour is unlawful and to bestow on prisoners any punishment they see fit, including the death penalty.
Since word of Sibat's sentencing emerged, newspapers in the Middle East have been running photographs of his family. One photo is particularly poignant: Sibat's young daughter sits at home in rural Lebanon, smiling innocently next to a framed picture of her father. She probably has no idea what the Saudi "justice" system has in store for him......."
Elaheh Khayyat
(Elaheh Khayyat is the pen name of a Lebanon-based journalist and human rights activist.)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009
"Once again, the spotlight is on Saudi Arabia for all the wrong reasons. This time, the kingdom is attracting criticism for condemning a self-styled psychic to death on the vague charge of "witchcraft".
Ali Sibat, who is Lebanese, was arrested by Saudi Arabia's notorious moral police at his hotel room in Medina on May 7 last year, while in town for a pilgrimage. After languishing in jail for a year and a half, he was sentenced to death in November for reportedly practising witchcraft. His lawyer has said Sibat was told that if he confessed to witchcraft, he would be released and allowed to return home.....
Astonishingly, Saudi Arabia also has no written penal code, meaning that those who live in or visit the kingdom have no way of knowing whether or not their actions constitute criminal activity. Accordingly, judges have the power to determine what behaviour is unlawful and to bestow on prisoners any punishment they see fit, including the death penalty.
Since word of Sibat's sentencing emerged, newspapers in the Middle East have been running photographs of his family. One photo is particularly poignant: Sibat's young daughter sits at home in rural Lebanon, smiling innocently next to a framed picture of her father. She probably has no idea what the Saudi "justice" system has in store for him......."
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