Beheading scheduled for this Friday…

Sibat/CNN: Ali Hussain Sibat, a Lebanese man, charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, according to his lawyer May El Khansa. She stated that she had heard from a source in Saudi Arabia who has knowledge of the case and the proceedings, that Saudi authorities “will carry out the execution.” El Khansa said she has appealed to Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, and president, Michel Suleiman, to stop the execution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to block it as well.

Sibat is the former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Beirut-based satellite TV channel “Sheherazade.” According to his lawyer, Sibat would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience. El Khansa said her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia’s religious police (known as the Mutawa’een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra. Sibat was then put on trial, and in November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was “premature.”  The Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent. On March 10, 2010, the judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.

The judges in a statement said that he deserved to be sentenced to death because he had practised “sorcery” publicly for several years before millions of viewers and that his actions made him an infidel. The court said also that there would be no way to verify that his repentance, if he should repent, would be sincere and that imposing the death sentence would deter other people from engaging in “sorcery” at a time when, the court said, there is an increase in the number of “foreign magicians” entering Saudi Arabia. “The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court,” said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.

I find it disturbing that none of the news media articles clarify exactly what kind of predictions Sibat made, what his advice was, and what the consequences were for his viewers. I suspect it was harmless, not inciting riots, not treasonous, and not lethal. If it was, we certainly would have heard about that! Predicting the future is entertainment and anyone taking such advice serious does this at their own risk.

To be accused, arrested, and sentenced for sorcery in 2010 is bizar. Even more bizar is, that Sibat’s predictions were done in Beirut but he get sentenced for that in Saudi Arabia! It is scary that activities that count as harmless fun in the modern world can get you sentenced to death when you travel to certain countries.

Aside from this, it is highly disturbing to see that despite efforts by King Abdullah to modernize the country it keeps falling back on unsound accusations based on superstition and condemnations based on prejudice. A country as Saudi Arabia, that receives so many people from all over the world annually for pilgrimages, has the responsibility to excercise more prudence.

Capital punishment must be reserved for the most heinous of crimes. I predict Sibat’s future telling on television does not qualify for “most heinous.”

Vidocq urges King Abdullah to intervene.

Read the CNN article here.