BBC: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has been urged to intervene to stop the execution of a Lebanese national accused of sorcery in Saudi Arabia.
Amnesty International said TV fortune teller Ali Hussain Sabat seemed to have been convicted for "exercising of his right to freedom of expression".
Mr Sabat's lawyer said she had been informed unofficially that he could be beheaded by the end of this week.
But Beirut's envoy to Riyadh said the case was still being heard.
The condemned man hosted a satellite TV show in which he predicted the future.
He was arrested by the Saudi religious police while on pilgrimage to the country in 2008.
Malcolm Smart, head of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme, said it was "high time the Saudi Arabian government joined the international trend towards a worldwide moratorium on executions".
The Lebanese ambassador to Riyadh, Marwan Zein, said on Thursday that he had not been informed that Mr Sabat's execution was imminent, AFP news agency reports.
His case was "still being considered by the court", the ambassador said.
There has been no official confirmation from Saudi Arabia, but executions there are often carried out with little warning. >>> | Thursday, April 01, 2010
CNN: The wife of a Lebanese man facing a death sentence in Saudi Arabia for "sorcery" pleaded for mercy Thursday as Lebanon's justice minister asked the kingdom's rulers to halt his beheading.
Family members have been told that Ali Hussain Sibat, who used to offer predictions and advice to callers on a Lebanese television network, is scheduled to be put to death Friday. His wife made an emotional plea for his release during a CNN interview Thursday.
"All I ask is for the Saudi king and the Saudi government to show him mercy -- let him come back to his country and his family," Samira Rahmoon said.
Sibat was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police and charged with sorcery while visiting the country for an Islamic pilgrimage in May 2008, according to May El Khansa, his attorney in Lebanon. Saudi authorities have not disclosed details of the charge for which Sibat has been condemned and have not responded to requests for comment on the case.
"We can't understand how they could arrest him and charge him and sentence him to death," Rahmoon said. "It doesn't make any sense."
El Khansa said Wednesday that she had been told about the upcoming execution by a Saudi source with knowledge of the case and the proceedings. Lebanon's government says it has no confirmation that his execution has been set. But Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said he has asked the Saudis to halt any scheduled execution and release Sibat, calling the punishment "disproportionate."
"I have asked them not to implement any execution in this case," he said. "As far as I know, such an act doesn't deserve such a punishment, unless there is something else -- something that I have not had the possibility to study or to examine myself."
Rahmoon said the family has been unable to contact Sibat "for a long time" and has received no official notification that her husband's execution date has been set.
"We don't understand how he could be executed without us getting any notification first," Rahmoon said. "How could they decide to execute him and not inform us?"
A law against witchcraft remains on the books in Lebanon, but is the equivalent of a misdemeanor, Najjar said. >>> Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN | Thursday, April 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The lawyer of a Lebanese TV psychic who was convicted in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft said her client could be beheaded this week and urged Lebanese and Saudi leaders to help spare his life.
Ali Sibat made predictions on an Arab satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut.
He was arrested by the Saudi religious police during his pilgrimage to the holy city of Medina in May 2008 and sentenced to death last November.
Lawyer May al-Khansa said she learned from an unofficial source that Mr Sibat, 49, is to be beheaded on Friday.
She added that she does not have any official confirmation of this.
"Ali is not a criminal. He did not commit a crime or do anything disgraceful," Mrs al-Khansa said.
"The world should help in rescuing a man who has five children, a wife and a seriously ill mother."
She added that Sibat's mother's health has been deteriorating since her son was sentenced to death.
The Saudi justice system, which is based on Islamic law, does not clearly define the charge of witchcraft.
Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling.
These practices are considered polytheism by the government in Saudi Arabia, a deeply religious Muslim country. >>> | Thursday, April 01, 2010
