Saudi justice minister tells Ali Sibat's lawyer that there will be no execution over charges of witchcraft
Associated Press in Beirut
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 April 2010
"A Lebanese TV psychic condemned to death for witchcraft by a Saudi court while visiting the country will not be beheaded, his lawyer said today.
May al-Khansa said that the Saudi ambassador in Beirut informed the Lebanese justice minister that the execution of Ali Sibat would not take place.
"He confirmed to me that there will be no execution," al-Khansa said after her conversation with Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanon's justice minister. She refused to go into details but said "matters are going in the right direction".....
The media have given sporadic attention to his case. The report of his imminent execution earlier this month brought a flurry of calls in the Lebanese press for his release. Some Lebanese have also rallied near the Saudi embassy in Beirut to protest against the sentence.
Associated Press in Beirut
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 April 2010
"A Lebanese TV psychic condemned to death for witchcraft by a Saudi court while visiting the country will not be beheaded, his lawyer said today.
May al-Khansa said that the Saudi ambassador in Beirut informed the Lebanese justice minister that the execution of Ali Sibat would not take place.
"He confirmed to me that there will be no execution," al-Khansa said after her conversation with Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanon's justice minister. She refused to go into details but said "matters are going in the right direction".....
The media have given sporadic attention to his case. The report of his imminent execution earlier this month brought a flurry of calls in the Lebanese press for his release. Some Lebanese have also rallied near the Saudi embassy in Beirut to protest against the sentence.
Human Rights Watch in New York said last year that Sibat's death sentence should be overturned. The monitoring organisation called on the Saudi government to halt its "increasing use of charges of 'witchcraft,' crimes that are vaguely defined and arbitrarily used"."
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