Saudi Arabia Delays Execution of TV 'Sorcerer,' Lawyer Says

A Lebanese television psychic sentenced to death for "sorcery" in Saudi Arabia was granted a stay of execution on Friday, his lawyer told The BBC.

Until he was arrested in 2008 while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, Ali Sibat (pictured) was the host of a satellite television program in which he promised to give "advice and predictions about the future," to callers from around the Arab world to his studio in Beirut, as Britain's Channel 4 News explained in a report on his case on Thursday.

The television psychic was popular in Saudi Arabia and was reportedly recognized by members of the country's religious police officially known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

According to Amnesty International, Mr. Sibat was sentenced to death in Medina in November, "after secret court hearings where he had no legal representation or assistance." The human rights group also reported that "on March 10, a court in Medina upheld the death sentence. The judges said that he deserved to be sentenced to death because he had practiced 'sorcery' publicly for several years before millions of viewers." The court added that his execution would act as a deterrent to what it called the increasing number of "foreign magicians" coming to Saudi Arabia.

May al-Khansa, a lawyer working for Mr. Sibat in Lebanon, raised an alarm about Mr. Sibat's possible execution this week when she said on Wednesday that she had been told he would be beheaded "within 48 hours." On Friday, though, Ms. Khansa told The Associated Press that Lebanon's justice minister had informed her that Mr. Sibat "would not be executed in Saudi Arabia today, the day executions are typically carried out in the kingdom after noon prayers."

Since Saudi authorities do not always give notice of executions, and have not responded to requests for comment from foreign media organizations, the apparent delay in Mr. Sibat's execution has yet to be confirmed.

Ms. Khansa told a BBC radio program that she had been told that he was still alive on Friday, "But after that I dont have an answer as to if he will be alive or not. Time is passing and if they don't kill him this Friday maybe next Friday." In a television interview with the BBC, she appealed to Saudi Arabia's king to recognize that "Ali Sibat is not a criminal."

In Beirut, Meris Lutz of The Los Angeles Times wrote that the case might be more about Saudi politics than law.

One Lebanese legal expert who is familiar with Saudi law and politics described the case against Sibat as a "muscle show" by conservatives who may be seeking to embarrass reformist leaders such as King Abdullah.

"I don't know on what grounds they arrested him, since he didn't commit [the crime] in Saudi, he's not a Saudi citizen, and it wasn't directed against Saudi, and usually one of these criteria must be fulfilled," the expert said, asking that her name not be published because she travels to Saudi Arabia.

Ms. Lutz added that the legal expert suggested that Mr. Sibat might have been given the harshest possible sentence because he is a Shiite Muslim.

Source: New York Times, April 3, 2010

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