While I've never regarded the Saudi "justice" system as either fair, Islamic, or competent, this case is exceptionally troublesome, and is further damaging Saudi Arabia's already poor image in the West.



Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'
By Heba Saleh
BBC News

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

'Undefined' crime

The US-based group is asking the Saudi ruler to void Ms Falih's conviction and to bring charges against the religious police who detained her and are alleged to have mistreated her.

Its letter to King Abdullah says the woman was tried for the undefined crime of witchcraft and that her conviction was on the basis of the written statements of witnesses who said that she had bewitched them.

Human Rights Watch says the trial failed to meet the safeguards in the Saudi justice system.

The confession which the defendant was forced to fingerprint was not even read out to her, the group says.

Also Ms Falih and her representatives were not allowed to attend most of the hearings.

When an appeal court decided she should not be executed, the law courts imposed the death sentence again, arguing that it would be in the public interest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7244579.stm

already poor image in the West.

as you said, already poor damaged image
as a result, I don't care any more :D

^^ same here lol

and who cares about western countries only? the double standard of the original threadstarter is troubling!

Instead of the West vs. non-West nonsense why not talk about the particulars and merits of the actual case? Just a thought.

Instead of the West vs. non-West nonsense why not talk about the particulars and merits of the actual case? Just a thought.

There actually is such a thing as black magic in the religion of Islam that is forbidden to say the least. For some reason some very uneducated women in the kingdom or "witches" do practice some form of black magic or hypnosis. Even though punishment by decapitation is definetly unnecessary:lol:, but these women that practice witchcraft in a country that views it so negatively must need some sort of mental help:nuts:

I think they found a Jacket with money and hair tied inside it among other things, and although its understandable for the CNN guest speaker to be appalled by such "evidence", but normally anything to do with hair being tied up has if anything undertones of having an intention to do black magic.

I found this picture of norwegian minister, is this allowed in saudia? No head scarves?

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080218/ids_photos_wl/r3502352382.jpg/

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080218/ids_photos_wl/r3502352382.jpg/

^^ yes it is

Norway has savings in the $Billions, the manner in which it has used its Oil reserves is such a benchmark.

why is such dressing allowed in saudi arabia? i am surprised.

^^ nothing is surprising!!

http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/befb60fd-40cd-4522-9d1b-5ad134321686_ms.jpeg


http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/XAN11404051440_ms.jpeg

who is the second lady?

^^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi

http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/XAN11404051440_ms.jpeg
a7la ya mto3:lol:

Ya nas, people, sorcery exists in the world. This lady is indeed practicing sorcery and witchcraft--something which is written in the Quran about. She decieves people in taking their money and ruining their lives. I support Saudi in this case. Witchcraft is something that is out of this world and something that we as regular people do not know about or know very little about. However, it is something that is written about in the Quran, and people do it today. They should be condemned and sentenced to death. I totally agree with the Saudi gov't this time.

^^yep that right magical things always using in bad way! i wondering why didn't USA Government asking them whose the real people causing the bombing of the World Trade Center or whose killed refiq al hariri :angel:

Sorcery is superstitious nonsense with no basis in fact, the Saudi government should be concetrating on educating the population so that they do not fall victim to such frauds due to ignorance.

If this woman has obtained money by deception, then she shoud be punished but witchcraft does not exist, you cannot make somebody impotent by cursing them, so at least one of the prosecution witnesses is lying.

I think we are having, as usual, a big misunderstanding here, between a western perspective and an eastern perspective. Being a westerner I can't really tell how this is really perceived in Saudi Arabia.
In the west we "defeated" witchcraft by denying its existence, but we still do have very very horrible people fooling poor people into believing them. I think the main point of debate here only comes from the choice of the word: witch.
For us a witch is something which belongs to fantasy books.

I find it very hard to explain myself here but I think the main reason why we can't agree on this is because of this word which is used. If the US news would say that this woman was condemned for practicing supersticion and frauding people that would be very different.

I still disagree with the necessity to kill her but that is your country and you have the right to decide what are the punishments for your criminals.

I think the way is not condemning Saudi Arabia or even less Islam for this and get on with our "civil" western lives but to talk and see we can understand better each other and mayb then change will happen naturally.

^^ nothing is surprising!!

http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/befb60fd-40cd-4522-9d1b-5ad134321686_ms.jpeg


http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/XAN11404051440_ms.jpeg

What is wrong with the way they are dressed? They look rather dignified and ok to me.

Saudi guy yep that right magical things always using in bad way! i wondering why didn't USA Government asking them whose the real people causing the bombing of the World Trade Center or whose killed refiq al hariri

You think it was witchcraft that brought down the WTC? Or you think the young Saudi men on those flights were actual witches? Help me understand.

If the Saudi law strictly prohibits witchcraft cursing and the religious police has sufficient evidence, I don't see why she shouldn't be prosecuted by law. Superstitious or not, cursing is an attempt to inflict injury upon another individual with explicitly malicious intentions. If a society considers that kind of cursing to be a real threat to human life, then I don't see why it shouldn't be prosecuted by criminal law, especially when malacious intent is so obvious. I do think execution is a bit harsh though.. and you never know if evidence can't be fabricated.

By the way, Korea has this kind of cursing too. However, it's believed that the shaman who inflicts a curse on another person also gets cursed with the same curse. So shamans rarely do it, if at all, obviously.