Human Rights Group Protests Saudi Death Sentence For TV Host Charged With Witchcraft

In a release issued Tuesday, Human Rights Watch called on a Saudi Arabian appellate court to overturn the death sentence imposed on a Lebanese man charged with witchcraft. According to AP, Ali Sabat was arrested by Saudi religious police who spotted him at his hotel in Medina last year while he was on the omra pilgrimage. In Lebanon, many psychics, fortune tellers and astrologers have regular radio and television programs. Sabat is the most popular psychic on the Lebanese satellite TV channel Sheherazade. A lower court in Medina imposed the death sentence on Sabat on Nov. 9. Apparently Sabat, who did not have a lawyer, had confessed because interrogators told him that if he did, he could go home to Lebanon. The case is being appealed to the cassation court in Mecca. Human Rights Watch, reviewing a number of cases in the last few years, more broadly called on the Saudi government to stop using the vaguely defined charge of witchcraft against defendants. Saudi Arabia has no criminal code, and judges are free to define acts thaey deem criminal and impose punishments.