Pressure Mounts To Stop 'Witch' Execution In Saudi Arabia

February 14, 2008 2:14 p.m. EST

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AHN) - The Saudi Arabian government is facing an international outcry over the scheduled beheading of a convicted "witch." The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement urging King Abdullah to stop the execution of Fawza Falih, a woman sentenced to death in 2006 for witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.

"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations.Fawza Falih's case is an example of how the authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the Saudi justice system," Joe Stork, Middle East Director of HRW said.

The practice of witchcraft as well as performing supernatural occurrences is considered an offence against Islam.

Fawza Falih reportedly turned two men impotent and cast a spell to bring about the return of a divorced man's ex-wife in the northern town of Quraiyat.

She was tried in court and found guilty on the strength of and testimonies from witnesses claiming that Falih had "bewitched" them and a coerced confession from Falih which she later retracted.

In September 2006, a Saudi lower court reissued the death sentence for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country".

Fawza Falih's case is just one of several that have triggered criticism of the Saudi legal system, which does not have a written penal code to spell out the elements of a particular crime.

Stork noted that the most frequent - and recently, most high-profile - victims of such whimsical court rulings are women, who already suffer severe restrictions in their daily life in Saudi Arabia.