Woman Sentenced to Death for Witchcraft
After Fawza Fahli was accused of bewitching men and making them impotent, her home was raided by the religious police of Saudi Arabia and destroyed in search of alleged evidence, which so far has proven to be an odd smelling substance and a white robe. She was then arrested in 2005, and convicted of witchcraft in April of 2006.
Her initial confession was literally beaten out of her, and she was forced to sign documents she couldn't read due to her illiteracy. She was never given the assistance of a lawyer or allowed to seek one. She later withdrew her confession. Astonishingly, her case held up in court with such little evidence, and she was convicted of crimes against Islam without a trial among her peers. In fact, Fawza was not allowed to attend the majority of her hearings. The sentence she received was death by decapitation.
Initially, the death sentence was overturned by an appeals court, however it was reinstated in a lower court as being in the public's best interest to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country. (Saudi Arabia)”
Many western human rights organizations are furious with the blatant disrespect to human rights. On February 14, 2008, the Human Rights Watch appealed to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to discontinue Fawza’s death sentence. Joe Stork, the Middle East director for Human Rights Watch is extremely displeased with the Saudi Arabian legal system and their outdated ethics.
Joe says, “The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations.” Many human rights organizations have been frustrated with Saudi Arabian policy in recent weeks, over things such as a business woman being jailed for sitting with a man at Starbucks, as well as a ban on everything red, including flowers, on Valentines Day.
Currently, Fawza Falih’s fate rests in the hands of the King Abdullah. She no longer has the option to appeal her case in court. King Abdullah has the option to halt and stop her execution, or to uphold it and sign the necessary paper work.
