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Author Topic: Saudi Arabia to execute woman for "witchcraft"
unionist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11323

posted 14 February 2008 04:35 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Pleas for condemned Saudi "witch"

quote:
Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent. [...]

When an appeal court decided she should not be executed, the law courts imposed the death sentence again, arguing that it would be in the public interest.



From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
munroe
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14227

posted 14 February 2008 05:31 PM      Profile for munroe     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What do the powers that be in Saudi Arabia think? Just because there's oil, it ain't Texas!

[ 14 February 2008: Message edited by: munroe ]


From: Port Moody, B.C. | Registered: Jun 2007  |  IP: Logged
martin dufresne
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11463

posted 14 February 2008 06:01 PM      Profile for martin dufresne   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
From the HRW Press release:

quote:
The judges relied on Fawza Falih’s coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had “bewitched” them to convict her in April 2006. She retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint. She also stated in her appeal that her interrogators beat her during her 35 days in detention at the hands of the religious police. At one point, she had to be hospitalized as a result of the beatings.

The judges never investigated whether her confession was voluntary or reliable or investigated her allegations of torture. They never even made an inquiry as to whether she could have been responsible for allegedly supernatural occurrences, such as the sudden impotence of a man she is said to have “bewitched.” They also broke Saudi law in multiple instances, ignoring legal rules on proper procedures in a trial.

Please pitch in, folks. A phone call or a FAX is worth 100 e-mails.
Saudi Arabia (Embassy Of)
Tel: (613) 237-4100 Fax:237-0567
201 Sussex Drive, Ottawa


From: "Words Matter" (Mackinnon) | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8273

posted 14 February 2008 06:58 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What would Bush do?


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged

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