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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:13 am Post subject: Saudi Woman Faces Death For Witchcraft |
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Saudi Woman Faces Death For Witchcraft
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 14, 2008
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(AP) A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom's religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."
Falih's case underscores shortcomings in Saudi Arabia's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.
The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.
Witchcraft is considered an offense against Islam in the conservative kingdom.
In Falih's case, the judges relied on a coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them to convict her in April 2006, according to the group.
Falih later retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and said that as an illiterate woman, she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.
"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations," said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
There was no immediate comment on the statement from Saudi Arabia, where government offices are closed on Thursdays, the start of the Muslim weekend.
"Fawza Falih's case is an example of how the authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the Saudi justice system," he added.
The Saudi court cited an instance in which a man allegedly became impotent after being bewitched by Falih, the rights group said.
An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Falih could not be sentenced to death for witchcraft because she had retracted her confession. But a lower court subsequently reissued the death sentence for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country," the group's statement said.
HRW statement came a day after Yakin Erturk, the U.N. special investigator for violence against women, wrapped up a 10-day visit to Saudi Arabia during which she highlighted another controversial case that has attracted international criticism.
Ertuk met with Fatima and Mansour al-Timani, who were forcibly divorced by the wife's family on grounds she had married someone from a lesser tribe.
The couple learned of the divorce on Feb. 25, 2006, when police knocked on their door to serve Mansour the divorce papers.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Erturk said she met the wife and husband who were in a "terrible state of mind" and that Saudi officials had promised her arrangements would be made for the couple's reunion, according to Saudi newspaper Arab News.
Unidentified Saudi women walk along a suburban street in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in this Nov. 15, 2006 file photo.
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stillnotking
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:30 am Post subject: |
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"A witness in the case, Mohammed Al-Fasir, claimed that the defendant had transformed him into a small amphibian, but that his condition had subsequently improved."
C'mon, the case just isn't complete without that line. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| stillnotking wrote: |
"A witness in the case, Mohammed Al-Fasir, claimed that the defendant had transformed him into a small amphibian, but that his condition had subsequently improved."
C'mon, the case just isn't complete without that line. |
Frank Sinatra...
Those fingers in my hair
That sly come-hither stare
That strips my conscience bare
It's witchcraft
And I've got no defense for it
The heat is too intense for it
What good would common sense for it do?
'cause it's witchcraft, wicked witchcraft
And although I know it's strictly taboo
When you arouse the need in me
My heart says "Yes, indeed" in me
"Proceed with what you're leadin' me to"
It's such an ancient pitch
But one I wouldn't switch
'cause there's no nicer witch than you
[instrumental]
'cause it's witchcraft, that crazy witchcraft
And although I know it's strictly taboo
When you arouse the need in me
My heart says "Yes, indeed" in me
"Proceed with what you're leadin' me to"
It's such an ancient pitch
But one I'd never switch
'cause there's no nicer witch than you |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:23 am Post subject: |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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Can science develop a clean nuke? I'm half-serious. There are certain regions of the world that just didn't work out.
(And to be fair, America has a few of its own, Imo. But thank God I'm not God). |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Fiveeagles believes in witches too. And he's a christian. |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
Can science develop a clean nuke? I'm half-serious. There are certain regions of the world that just didn't work out.
(And to be fair, America has a few of its own, Imo. But thank God I'm not God). |
Neutron bombs are your best bet. They produce a lethal dose of radiation very quickly with no fallout at all, no long term environmental damage, minimal physical damage (to buildings), killing only living things. I'm not an expert, but I think H-bombs would be relatively clean and produce no fallout were it not for the fact that uranium/plutonium is used as a trigger. As far as I know, uranium/plutonium fission is the only thing that can raise those temperatures to set the hydrogen off.
I so couldn't be trusted with all those nukes.  |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:34 am Post subject: |
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Fiveeagles on witches in africa:
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| Why don't we go to Africa and you can meet some of the witch doctors that regularly curse our churches and meetings. Lets see them curse you and I would like to see what happens to you. Many people end up dead. |
Fiveeagles is an engineer by education. Amazing a man who has studied science not only believes in witches but believes they can kill people with magical curses.
When africans attack and murder these people, I wonder if he thinks they're doing it in self defense? |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
Fiveeagles on witches in africa:
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| Why don't we go to Africa and you can meet some of the witch doctors that regularly curse our churches and meetings. Lets see them curse you and I would like to see what happens to you. Many people end up dead. |
Fiveeagles is an engineer by education. Amazing a man who has studied science not only believes in witches but believes they can kill people with magical curses.
When africans attack and murder these people, I wonder if he thinks they're doing it in self defense? |
How else can you explain how the Patriots lost in the Superbowl? |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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| They better dunk that wench in water and see if she floats first before making assumptions! |
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