witch

Saudi to behead Lebanese convicted of witchcraft: lawyer

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Saudi Arabia is a country run by cavemen.

Saudi to behead Lebanese convicted of witchcraft: lawyer

A Lebanese man sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia on charges of witchcraft is due to be beheaded this week, his lawyer said on Wednesday, urging officials and rights groups to intervene on his behalf.”Last night we got news through unofficial channels that Ali Sabat would be beheaded within 48 hours,” May el-Khansa, Sabat’s attorney in Beirut told AFP.

“I have since been contacting Lebanese officials, including President Michel Sleiman and Lebanon’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia to appeal his case.”

Sabat was sentenced to death in November of last year by a Saudi court for practicing witchcraft.

He was arrested in May 2008 by the religious police in Medina, where he was on a pilgrimage before returning to his native Lebanon.

The case against him was brought after he gave advice and made predictions on Lebanese television.

Khansa said Lebanon’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia was in contact with Sabat and someone from the embassy had visited him on Wednesday in his jail cell.

“It is very important that we save the life of this one person,” she said. “He is not a criminal.”

She added that Sabat’s family was in shock and that his mother was seriously ill with doctors saying she could die anytime.

Rights groups have expressed concern about Sabat’s case and similar ones pending in Saudi Arabia and have accused Saudi courts of sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police.

Saudi Arabia has no clear legal definition on the charge of witchcraft and judges are given discretionary power in determining what constitutes a crime and what sentence to impose.

In November 2007, Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian working as a pharmacist in Saudi Arabia was beheaded after he was found guilty of sorcery.

Witch-hunt victim recounts torture ordeal

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Witch-hunt victim recounts torture ordeal

A woman has been tortured by her neighbours for two days and forced to eat human waste before she finally gave in and confessed to practising witchcraft.

Those who beat, punched and kicked Kalli Biswokarma, 47, accused her of casting evil spells on a schoolteacher who had fallen ill in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres south of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

“I was victimised because I am a poor woman,” said Ms Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community – the untouchables on the lowest rung of Nepal’s rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

“Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine.

“The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life.”

Hundreds of Dalit women are thought to suffer a similar ordeal every year in Nepal, where superstition and caste-based discrimination remain rife and where most communities still operate on strict patriarchal lines.

Human rights campaigners say the perpetrators of such crimes are rarely brought to justice, with police viewing the persecution of Dalit women as a matter for the community itself to sort out.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has pronounced 2010 the year to end violence against women, but authorities in the impoverished nation admit they face an uphill struggle.

“Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this,” said Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare.

“Such traditional practices cannot be wiped away overnight.”

The Women’s Rehabilitation Centre says it has documented at least 82 cases in two years in which women who were tortured by neighbours on charges of witchcraft.

Experts say superstitions about witchcraft are often merely a pretext for victimising women.

For Ms Biswokarma and her family, now back in their home village after a stay in a women’s refuge in Kathmandu, the stigma of being accused of witchcraft persists.

“I am still afraid because some of the people who tortured me are still in the village,” she said.

“I have lost my dignity, but I have not given up hope. I will fight for justice.”