Witch trials in Saudi
That well known shining beacon of civilisation and modernity, Saudi Arabia, is at it again with... sentencing people to death for witchcraft.
In 2005, the feared Saudi religious police (the guys who let small children die in their burning school buildings because they were improperly dressed), arrested Ms Fawza Falih of Quraiyat in northern Saudi for witchcraft, claiming she had cast spells alleged to have done things such making a man impotent by magic and a divorced woman return to her husband.
As is their common practice, they beat her, and forced her to sign a confession she couldn't read (she's illiterate), then put her on trial - without legal representation or the right to cross examine accusers - and got her sentenced to death. When her conviction was quashed by the appeal court, the punishment was reinstated by other legal authorities as being 'in the public interest'. Now her only only hope of avoiding public beheading is royal clemency.
Here's the BBC version of the story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7244579.stm
and the fuller Reuters version
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/330597da3a8a5bc1432eb7fc72300a20.htm
Soph x
In 2005, the feared Saudi religious police (the guys who let small children die in their burning school buildings because they were improperly dressed), arrested Ms Fawza Falih of Quraiyat in northern Saudi for witchcraft, claiming she had cast spells alleged to have done things such making a man impotent by magic and a divorced woman return to her husband.
As is their common practice, they beat her, and forced her to sign a confession she couldn't read (she's illiterate), then put her on trial - without legal representation or the right to cross examine accusers - and got her sentenced to death. When her conviction was quashed by the appeal court, the punishment was reinstated by other legal authorities as being 'in the public interest'. Now her only only hope of avoiding public beheading is royal clemency.
Here's the BBC version of the story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7244579.stm
and the fuller Reuters version
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/330597da3a8a5bc1432eb7fc72300a20.htm
Soph x