Woman Accused of Witchcraft Axed to Death in Papua New Guinea

Local tribes men from Enga, Papua New Guinea

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Woman accused of being a sorceress has been hacked to death by a mob

Police in Papua New Guinea vowed to find the men who axed to death a woman accused of using witchcraft to spark a measles outbreak in the country's remote jungle highlands, a missionary said on Wednesday after meeting authorities.

The woman, Mifila, was one of four women accused with 13 of their family members of using sorcery to cause measles deaths last November in the village of Fiyawena, in Enga province, said Lutheran missionary Anton Lutz.

Women are often accused and killed in witch hunts even though laws passed in 2013 make revenge killings over black magic punishable by death. Human Rights Watch earlier this year named Papua New Guinea as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman due to gender based violence. » | Agencies | Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Witchcraft Is Growing Threat to Children in Britain, Warn Police
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Children in Britain are being abused and murdered in increasing numbers because the belief in witchcraft is rife in some African communities, police said.

The warning was issued as a couple from the Democratic Republic of Congo were found guilty of murdering the woman’s 15-year-old brother during an “exorcism ceremony”.

The Metropolitan Police yesterday said it had investigated 83 “faith-based” child abuse cases involving witchcraft in the past 10 years but believed it was still an “under-reported, hidden crime”. » | Nick Britten and Victoria Ward | Thursday, March 01, 2012

Nepal Mob Burns 'Witch' Alive in Horrifying Attack
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A mob burned alive a 40-year-old woman on Friday after accusing her of casting black magic spells in a remote village in southern Nepal, police said.

Dengani Mahato died after she was severely beaten, doused in kerosene and set alight for allegedly practising witchcraft, Gopal Bhandari, a superintendent of police in Chitwan district, said.

"Nine people started to beat her after a local shaman pointed the finger at her over the death of a boy a year ago," the officer said.

"They accused her of having hands in the death of the boy, who had drowned in a river." » | AFP | Friday, February 17, 2012

400-Year-old Witchcraft Trial Resumes in Germany
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The trial of a woman burnt at the stake 400 years ago for witchcraft resumed in Germany on Monday in an effort to clear the woman's name.

Katharina Henot suffered her fiery fate in Cologne in 1627 after being found guilty of practicing black magic. Arrested, and tortured to such an extent that the right-handed woman had to scrawl her last letter of defence with her left hand, she was eventually paraded through the city in an open cart before being tied to a stake and burnt.

Now the panel on the city council whose predecessors found her guilty of witchcraft hundreds of years ago will review the evidence. It is suspected that Henot, head of the city's post office, fell foul of a deadly game of political intrigue orchestrated by her rivals and detractors.

The fact that Henot's name has a chance of exoneration is due largely to the efforts of Hartmut Hegeler, an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher, who has championed the woman's cause in Cologne. » | Matthew Day, Warsaw | Monday, February 13, 2012

THE LOCAL – GERMANY: Cologne witchcraft trial reopens after 400 years: A witchcraft trial is re-opening in Cologne on Monday in the hope that one woman will have her name cleared, centuries after being burned at the stake. » | The Local/DPAD/jcw | Monday, February 13, 2012

Somebody, Somewhere, Help This Poor Man! Lebanese TV Psychic Could Be Beheaded for Witchcraft
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. >>> | Thursday, April 01, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: 'Lebanese Derren Brown' Wins Reprieve from Beheading >>> Friday, April 02, 2010

CNN: Videos >>> | Friday, April 02, 2010

'Lebanese Derren Brown' Wins Reprieve from Beheading
THE TELEGRAPH: A Lebanese television psychic who is the equivalent of Derren Brown has won a temporary reprieve from a death sentence after being convicted in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft.

Ali Sibat, 49, had 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.

He had been set to be beheaded Friday, the day executions are typically carried out in Saudi Arabia, but according to his attorney May al-Khansa, Lebanon's justice minister told her [that] her client would not be executed. She said it is still unclear whether the beheading had been waved [sic] or only postponed.

"Ali Sibat will stay alive this Friday but we don't know what is going to happen the next day, Saturday, Monday, any other day," she said. "What the (justice) minister told us was not enough for the family, it is not enough for me, because we really need Ali Sibat to be released." >>> | Friday, April 02, 2010

Related:

Beheading for Islamic Pilgrim? >>> | Friday, April 02, 2010

Moyen-Orient – Arabie: Un charlatan décapité?
leJDD.fr: On ne rigole pas avec les "charlatans" en Arabie saoudite. Même quand ils travaillent hors du pays, au Liban en l'occurrence. Ali Sabat devait être décapité vendredi pour avoir effectué des prédictions pour la télévision de Beyrouth. Il a surtout commis l'erreur de se rendre en pèlerinage à Médine. Un périple qui l'a conduit tout droit à la décapitation. La police religieuse en a en effet profité pour l'arrêter. Si son exécution a été reportée vendredi suite à l'intervention de la diplomatie libanaise, le "sorcier" n'est pas tiré d'affaires.

Il ne l'avait certainement pas vu venir. Ali Sabat, qui effectuait des prédictions pour la chaîne libanaise Sheherazade, diffusée par satellite, devait être exécuté vendredi en Arabie saoudite. Si son exécution a été reportée suite à l'intervention de la diplomatie libanaise, son sort reste encore incertain. II avait été arrêté en mai 2008 lors d'un pèlerinage vers Médine pour "sorcellerie et charlatanisme", des activités jugées polythéistes et contraire à la loi islamique.

L'homme n'a pourtant jamais exercé ses activités en Arabie saoudite mais depuis Beyrouth. Qu'importe, il lui a suffi de se rendre en pèlerinage dans la ville sainte de la péninsule arabique pour être appréhendé par la police religieuse saoudienne. Interrogé, il a avoué ses "crimes", en espérant être simplement renvoyé du pays. Le 9 novembre 2008, le verdict est tombé: peine de mort par décapitation. >>> Mathieu Olivier - leJDD.fr | Vendredi 02 Avril 2010

Beheading for Islamic Pilgrim?


Question About Saudi Justice


Related:

Saudis Display Their Barbaric, Dark Age Credentials! >>> | Thursday, April 01, 2010

Saudis Display Their Barbaric, Dark Age Credentials! Saudi Move to Execute 'Sorcery Man' Sparks Protest
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

Wife of Condemned 'Sorcerer' Pleads for Mercy
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

Lebanese TV Psychic Could Be Beheaded for Witchcraft
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

An Open ‘Letter’ to the Archbishop of Canterbury

Most Reverend Sir:

In light of your recent comments about Shari'ah law, I should be very much obliged to receive your comments about the following distressing account of a poor lady in Saudi Arabia who is about to be beheaded for alleged 'witchcraft' as a result of a ruling in a Shari'ah court. Please see the following links:

International fury over Saudi Arabia's plans to behead woman accused of being a witch

Pleas for condemned Saudi ‘witch’

Are you proposing to intervene in this matter, are you proposing to try and save this poor lady's life?

It should be noted that Ms Falih is illiterate, and the confession forced out of her was a confession she was unable to understand.

It would be comforting to learn that you have done something to try and save this person's life, especially in view of your commitment to Shari'ah law.

Most sincerely

Mark Alexander
Author: The Dawning of a New Dark Age

Please note that you, too, may contact the Archbishop of Canterbury about this matter by clicking on the following link.

Mark Alexander

Saudi Arabia to Behead Woman for Witchcraft
DAILY MAIL: The Saudi Arabian king today faced international outcry over the planned beheading of a woman accused of being a witch.

Fawza Falih turned two men impotent, a court heard in the ultra-religious state where “performing supernatural occurrences” is considered an offence against Islam.

Judges were also told she cast a spell to bring about the return of a divorced man's ex-wife.

But international charity Human Rights Watch said King Abdullah's religious police had forced a confession out of her.

And they claim 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." International fury over Saudi Arabia's plans to behead woman accused of being a witch >>>

BBC:
Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch' By Heba Saleh

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)