TV presenter gets death sentence for 'sorcery'

Forums: News, Islam, Sharia Law, Saudi Arabia, Sorcery
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(CNN) -- Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery."

In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.

According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.

The attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN 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. In November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found Sibat guilty and sentenced him to death.

According to El Khansa, 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."

El Khansa tells CNN that 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, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.

"The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.

The case has been covered extensively by local media. According to Arab News, an English language Saudi daily newspaper, after the most recent verdict was issued, the judges in Medina issued a statement expressing that Sibat deserved to be executed for having continually practiced black magic on his show, adding that this sentence would deter others from practicing sorcery. Arab News reports that the case will now return to the appeals court in Mecca.

CNN has not been able to reach Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice for comment.

Source:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/19/saudi.arabia.sorcery/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

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Type: Discussion • Score: 10 • Views: 4,488 • Replies: 30

@Merry Andrew,

Quote:

Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man

the thing is King Abdullah has no authority over the courts inside Saudi Arabia.

0 Replies

I hope the religious police get a glimpse of late night community access TV channels here in New York. Several people do live 'readings' based on astrological signs and, I don't know, the sound of tension in the caller's voice.

Joe(now those people deserve to be executed.)Nation

1 Reply

@Merry Andrew,

Merry Andrew wrote:

. . . According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show . . .

Didn't see this coming.

1 Reply

Peronally, I find this type of stuff -- horoscopes, palmistry, Tarot readings etc. -- amusing as hell and pity the poor souls who put credence in it. But the death penalty seems, somehow, just a touch harsh.

1 Reply

@Merry Andrew,

Yeah, anything more than amputation is over the top.

1 Reply

@George,

Weird thing is, he's guilty.

By that I mean, as a self-professed psychic who consults spirits, he is
practicing sorcery. The very act of trying to consult a spirit is all it
takes. Sounds silly to us, but that's the way they define it.

Hell, there were clergymen right here in the good old US of A who
burned Harry Potter books because they promoted witchcraft. Scary.

2 Replies

@Merry Andrew,

Are they punishing this guy because they think he's really doing sorcery, or because he's spewing so much bullshit out into the airwaves that they can't stand it any more.

Maybe if we started taking a hard line with all the psycho charlatan mega-preachers and home psychics and tarot card readers out there who are bilking people for billions there would be fewer dupes around who fall for this stuff.

If this Lebanese guy has really been able to see the future he would have seen this execution coming.

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

I say we start with that guy who sells SHAMWOWs on basic cable

3 Replies

@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

I hope the religious police get a glimpse of late night community access TV channels here in New York. Several people do live 'readings' based on astrological signs and, I don't know, the sound of tension in the caller's voice.

Joe(now those people deserve to be executed.)Nation

Thay better not go to Arabia.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

I say we start with that guy who sells SHAMWOWs on basic cable

I say we start with Pat Robertson.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

I say we start with that guy who sells SHAMWOWs on basic cable

Can we tar & feather him first ?
See if the shamwows will get that off.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Can we tar & feather him first?
See if the shamwows will get that off.

Ha, good one Dave Smile

0 Replies

No, I want the TV guy who speaks to the dead.

"Someone here has recently lost someone."
( No ****. A recent death amongst 100 people. wow. Who'd thunk?) "
"And this person,,,,,,,I'm getting an 'E".or an "I"..
[scans audience for reaction, getting none, continues..]
"this was a person who had been sick for
[what the hell, 50/50 chance/]
"a short time!"
[Catches a little jolt in the woman in the second row.Turns immediately toward her!]
"Yes! Just a short time! No one saw this coming.!"
[except him]
"I'm still getting that "I", can you tell us what it might be?"
[woman in audience thinks....'Oh,' she says, 'It was an infection."]

Joe(okay. I'm sick to my stomach now.)Nation

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

I say we start with that guy who sells SHAMWOWs on basic cable

His name is Vince Offer, and he's also here with the Slap -chop...

T
K
O

0 Replies

@George,

I don't think there is any such thing as sorcery. There are sorcer wannabes, have been for Ages. And sorcerer's apprentices..

Don't get me going on witchcraft or some a2kers will come after me with a broom.

0 Replies

@George,

George wrote:

Merry Andrew wrote:

. . . According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show . . .

Didn't see this coming.

That's why they call it "practicing" sorcery, George. Wink

1 Reply

I've been thinking that there might be more to this story than what's on the surface. Is there an ulterior reason for wanting this charlatan dead? Does the Saudi judiciary know something they're not giving out to the press? I mean, this guy is Lebanese, he's not even Saudi. He goes on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca (I always thought that was the hajj but they're calling it something else in the CNN newsclip). And, lo and behold, he ends up in Saudi custody, up on charges of sorcery. Why? Why not ignore him as a daft foreigner?

(And, of course, you're 100 percent right, George -- he's guilty all right. Committed his crime right on prime time TV.)

1 Reply

@Merry Andrew,

Merry Andrew wrote:

. . . He goes on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca (I always thought that was the hajj but they're calling it something else in the CNN newsclip). . .

TV presenter gets death sentence for 'sorcery'

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