Saudi Arabia to execute psychic for witchcraft

[Al-khiyal]

Psychic may lose his life over TV show

Lebanon, April 18, 2010 -- Lebanese psychic Ali Sibat had just woken from an afternoon nap in a Saudi hotel when the telephone rang. A Saudi man asked if he could make a magical talisman for his sister who had marital problems. Sibat, in the kingdom on a pilgrimage, said he'd be happy to help. As soon as he hung up, religious police stormed into his room and arrested him for practicing witchcraft. Now Sibat is on death row, sentenced to be beheaded.

His arrest in 2008 and sentencing the following year has devastated Sibat's family in the eastern Lebanese village of al-Ain, who have been struggling to win his release. Two weeks ago, they were hit by the news that his execution was scheduled for April 2. His 19-year-old son went into a violent seizure from the shock and remains in a hospital. His 15-year-old daughter was thrown into depression and could not go to school. In the end, the execution did not take place, but the family remains in fear. "It was a shock to all of us," Sibat's wife, Samira Rahmoon, 46, said. "We're all dying a slow death."

Saudi Arabia, which enforces a strict version of Islamic law, arrests dozens of people a year on sorcery charges, and the last known execution came in 2007 with the beheading of an Egyptian pharmacist, according to human rights groups. The charges are often vague - covering anything from fortune-telling to astrology to making charms and talismans believed to bring love, health or pregnancy. Saudi judges cite Qur'anic verses forbidding witchcraft, but such practices remain popular as a folk tradition.

In Sibat's case, the charges seem to center on a call-in talk show he hosted on a Lebanese satellite station where he would tell fortunes and give advice. His supporters point out that the show was aired from Lebanon, not Saudi Arabia. The Sibat family's lawyer in Lebanon, May Khansa, contends the call to Sibat's hotel room appears to have been a setup by Saudi religious police to incriminate him. "Islam prohibits tricking people," Khansa said.

Sibat, 49, a devout Shi'ite Muslim and father of four, was a 20-year-old tailor when he proposed to Rahmoon, a Sunni Muslim from his home village of al-Ain. She said he became interested in astrology from the age of 15 and read many books on the subject. He later worked as a truck driver until five years ago, when the Lebanese satellite channel Sheherezade hired him to do psychic readings three times a week for half an hour. In the show, titled The Hidden, he would take in calls from viewers with problems and offer spiritual solutions, as telephone numbers scrolled across the screen for viewers to call in from Australia, France, Switzerland, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

"There is a tree at the entrance to your house," he told a female caller in an episode from 2007. "Dig 30 centimeters deep at the base of the tree and you'll will find something. Pick it up and throw it in the water. Everything in your household will be fine from then on." To another caller from Tunisia, whose daughter was ill, he said, "your daughter has been sick ever since she was born. Bathe her - her body must be clean and abluted - and then read the soura (Qur'anic verse) of al-Momenoon once." The caller says she doesn't know how to read. Anyone else will do, he responds, then lists three other souras that must be read over the daughter before her health improves.

Rahmoon seems unconvinced about her husband's powers, but insists he did nothing wrong. "I was OK with his new job. He didn't hurt anyone." She stressed that he was a good Muslim, beginning his program by reading an Islamic verse that denies the powers of fortune-tellers and emphasizes that "no one knows the unknown but God." Rahmoon said she has spoken to her husband only once since his arrest - about five months ago. He told her he was innocent and cried on the phone. She saw Saudi TV footage of him as he was escorted to jail with his hands and feet chained. "The sight of him was horrifying. He'd become thin as a stick." "I'm angry. He's been wronged. The whole world should get on its feet and help him get freed. The Lebanese government should demand his release," she said, wiping tears with the corner of her yellow headscarf.

Sibat's case has brought sporadic media attention since his arrest. The report of his imminent execution two weeks ago brought a flare of calls in the Lebanese press for his release. Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said last week that he had urged the Saudi government not to carry out the execution. Rahmoon said that she had talked to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who promised to help. "But nothing has happened," she said. Hariri, who holds Saudi citizenship as well as Lebanese, has close ties to Saudi Arabia's ruling family.

[Ruks]

i didn't think that fortune telling/producing talisman etc was punishable by death. I wonder how many saudis they have executed for the same thing?

[Al-khiyal]

Lebanese TV psychic condemned to death in Saudi to be reprieved

April 21, 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". "We have faith in Saudi Arabia's judicial system," she added, noting that Sibat's actions are not considered a crime in Lebanon.

Sibat is one of scores of people reportedly arrested every year in the Islamic kingdom on charges of practising sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortune-telling, which are considered to be polytheism by the ultra-conservative Saudi judiciary. The father of five was arrested by religious police while making a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in May 2008 and was sentenced to death last November. Sibat, 49, made predictions on a satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut, where psychics, fortunetellers and astrologers operate freely. Many have regular TV and radio shows. Some cafes even hire them to attract more customers. On 31 December, they jostle for air time to give their predictions for the new year.

According to his lawyer, Sibat was the most popular psychic on his channel, especially among callers from the conservative Gulf. After Mecca, Sibat went to Medina to pray at the Mosque of the Prophet. At his hotel, members of the religious police who enforce the kingdom's strict Islamic lifestyle spotted him and grabbed him. Earlier this week, a Saudi judicial official said the country's highest appellate court had upheld the death sentence and asked the nation's supreme judicial council to set a date for the execution. Saudi newspapers have reported that the court of cassation had first rejected the case and asked the lower tribunal to offer Sibat a chance to repent. It was not clear if he was given that chance.

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".