Woman Faces Death Penalty For Witchcraft In Saudi Arabia

A Sri Lankan woman could be beheaded for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.

Reuters reports that the woman was arrested for allegedly casting a spell on a 13-year-old girl.

In a report filed by The Daily Okaz and cited by Reuters, the girl's father claimed she "suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman."

Witchcraft is a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.

The story comes just one month after the Times of India reported that villagers in Lohardaga, India lynched an elderly woman and man, allegedly for practicing witchcraft.

Last year the Times also reported on a string of elderly women killed in Guwahati, India for performing dark magic.

But the killings reported in the Times were not conducted by the government, whereas the woman in Saudi Arabia faces a state-sanctioned death penalty.

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Comments

[jadeaic]

11:39 AM on 04/23/2012

Amazing how so far behind the times places like these are. In 300 years or so, they may catch up with the rest of us.

[Nalliah Thayabharan]

07:08 AM on 04/23/2012

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's inhumane acts are very disgusting. One concerns me about the West's role in bringing liberty because if their own allies like Saudi Arabia can't be changed then how can Afghanistan or any other nation be changed. West never says a word to criticize the abuses in Saudi Arabia but in Libya it was an uproar.
As long as Saudi Arabia kneels to NATO, then human rights violations don't 'exist', if the Kingdom decides to make one move against NATO, then it would be labelled like Gaddafi and invaded.
Western hypocrisy and double standards of United Nations just stink! Saudi Arabia is the most repressive nation on earth, ruled by an undemocratic, autocratic monarchy. It is OK to do business with Saudi Arabia but countries like Iraq, Libya and Syria are targeted because of an alleged deficit of democracy. What a joke!
In 2003, Western media played a leading role in making the case for US/UK invasion of Iraq; as a result, we have over a million dead Iraqis, a ruined nation and no democracy in Iraq but as far as western media is concerned the mission is done well in Iraq- and the media in the West moved on to elsewhere. Now came Libya - regime change there brought in hundred of thousands dead - ruined nation and no democracy; Now is Syria's turn to experience Western regime change and all that comes with its: ruined nations and millions of dead people.

[voteindependent]

11:11 AM on 04/23/2012

then DO something about it - declare a jihad and go for it



but you CANNOT declare Arab equlity with the West when you blame the West for NOT doing anything - its YOUR job to do something about YOUR society


unless you are children

[RedneckSamurai]

06:08 AM on 04/23/2012

She turned me into a toad once...

[GWBear]

10:11 PM on 04/22/2012

Government backed death penalty for witchcraft??!!??? And these are allies if ours?

Lord help us all! What will these primitive people do when the oil runs out? They will be left with nothing, as they have done little to modernize their world. Riches, fine living, and playthings, yes. Long term term investment in modernization and education for the betterment if society, no!!

[SeeTheFnords]

08:15 PM on 04/22/2012

Perhaps the woman is of great piety, and the teen is a witch?

[NativeHorn]

05:32 PM on 04/22/2012

Seriously, what year is this?

[gmcinahuff]

02:15 PM on 04/22/2012

After the witch is beheaded and sometime later the man's teenage girl 'suddenly acts in an abnormal way' then what? Who then, is beheaded?

[Nalliah Thayabharan]

11:34 AM on 04/22/2012

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that has no written criminal code and where court rulings are based on judges’ interpretation of Islamic sharia law. The death penalty can be imposed for a wide range of offences including murder, rape, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery and can be carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning or firing squad, followed by crucifixion.
The death penalty can be imposed under the three categories of criminal offence in Sharia:
Hudud: fixed Quranic punishments for specific crimes. Hudud crimes which can result in the death penalty include apostasy, adultery, and sodomy.
Qisas: eye-for-an-eye retaliatory punishments. Qisas crimes include murder.Families of someone murdered can choose between demanding the death penalty or granting clemency in return for a payment of diyya, or blood money, by the perpetrator. There has been a growing trend of exorbitant blood-money demands, for example a sum of $11 million was reported as being recently demanded in exchange for clemency.
Tazir: a general category, including crimes defined by national regulations some of which can be punished by death, such as drug trafficking.
Saudi authorities beheaded eight Bangladeshi workers who were found guilty of robbing and killing an Egyptian man in October of 2011. This cruel practice by far exceeded the code of Hammurabi’s severe punishment, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.

[wendyweb47]

03:57 PM on 04/22/2012

Fanned and Favorite! Great explanation of the system those of us in the west don't know much about.

[SimpleOne]

10:03 AM on 04/22/2012

Don't worry Saudi Arabia someday soon you will learn how to make fire and be freed from the dark ages.

[YeahIThoughtSo]

02:36 AM on 04/22/2012

Poor woman.

[Jason Raider]

01:40 AM on 04/22/2012

Beep boop, I am a progressive robot programmed to respond to examples of the backwardness of other cultures by stating "oh yeah, well WE have Christian Fundamentalists," even though Christians have not burned witches for over 300 years.

[grant06]

07:28 PM on 04/22/2012

Where do you get your information? Never heard of the Lord's Reistance Army huh? Here's an 'interesting' one where the pastor poured acid down the throat of a young boy: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

[AngieG]

10:45 PM on 04/21/2012

A 13 year old girl acting in a way her father considered wierd - imagine that! Witchcraft can be the only explanation!

[ShockWitch]

09:48 PM on 04/21/2012

Great, here we go again...and here we thought we had this one beat.

[grant06]

07:29 PM on 04/22/2012

It never stopped.http://markhumphrys.com/christianity.killings.html

[ShockWitch]

11:03 AM on 04/24/2012

True enough.

[Jessica Godare]

08:51 PM on 04/21/2012

and they wonder why other country's call them backwards

[AskandThink]

08:42 PM on 04/21/2012

Witch is just another term for “scrape goat” IMHO! Does anyone have proof ANY “witch” ever actually harmed ANYONE?!

[OCerInTN]

04:05 AM on 04/22/2012

I know a witch that kicked a guy in the groin. True, that is anecdotal, not proof.

[AskandThink]

12:23 PM on 04/22/2012

;(
Reason enough then for off with the head!
ummmm wait, let's re-think that....