Saudi Arabia to execute a woman for witchcraft
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.
Contact information for the Saudi Embassy:
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Main Number: (202) 342-3800
Consulate/Visa Section: (202) 944-3126
Medical Office: (202) 342-7393
Commercial Office: (202) 337-4088
/Hat tip to Darryl in comments at Eschaton.
3 comments:
i think this is vile and indefensible. it repulses me that our president holds hands with these people, literally. i'm sure the general populace of the country are, like ours, just folks trying to make it from day to day, but the royal family, the clerics and all their ilk are of a kind with our own sociopath-in-chief. it's no wonder we're marching back into the dark ages to a time before the writ of habeas corpus was established.
that having been said.....there is a barbarian somewhere in my DNA that imagines rapists, child molesters etc. having their heads cut off with swords, and he laughs. but i'm trying hard to repress that inner barbarian.
Our current government will say and do nothing.
Bush and the House of Saud:
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/18/house_of_bush_house_of_saud
and we've just given them more weapons:
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/01/15/bush-delivers-20-billion-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia/
What are we coming to?
Sia
Hi, r@d@r--the barbarian within me would like to see war criminals--like those responsible for, say, the deaths of 100's of thousands of Iraiqis, for destroying this archeological treasures, for allowing pillaging and destruction of their history--run through with sabers and then all the rest you describe.
Or, just send them to The Hague and keep them there.
jawbone
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