Saudi Arabia: Halt Woman's Execution for 'Witchcraft'

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"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes

like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective

criminal investigations. Fawza Falih's case is an example of how the

authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the

Saudi justice system"

-Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

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Saudi Arabia: Halt Woman's Execution for 'Witchcraft'

Fawza Falih's Case Reveals Deep Flaws in Saudi Justice System

(New York, February 14, 2008) - King Abdullah should halt the

execution of Fawza Falih and void her conviction for "witchcraft,"

Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Saudi king.

The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the

judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her

the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges that

have no basis in law.

"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes

like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective

criminal investigations," said Joe Stork, Middle East director at

Human Rights Watch. "Fawza Falih's case is an example of how the

authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the

Saudi justice system."

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.

The judges did not sit as a panel of three, as required for cases

involving the death penalty. They excluded Fawza Falih from most trial

sessions and banned a relative who was acting as her legal

representative from attending any session. Earlier, her interrogators

blocked her access to a lawyer and the judges, and denied her the

right to professional legal representation, thus depriving her of the

opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses against her. She claims

that some of the witnesses were unknown to her and that others had

made statements against her only as a result of beatings.

Saudi Arabia does not have a written penal code, and "witchcraft" is

not a defined crime. The Law of Criminal Procedure of 2002 grants

defendants the right to be tried in person, to have a lawyer present

during interrogation and trial, and to cross-examine any prosecution

witnesses. The law obliges law enforcement officers to treat detainees

humanely.

An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Fawza Falih could not be

sentenced to death for "witchcraft" as a crime against God because she

had retracted her confession. The lower court judges then sentenced

her to death on a "discretionary" basis, for the benefit of "public

interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this

country."

"The judges' behavior in Fawza Falih's trial shows they were

interested in anything but a quest for the truth," Stork said. "They

completely disregarded legal guarantees that would have demonstrated

how ill-founded this whole case was."

On November 2, Saudi Arabia executed Mustafa Ibrahim for sorcery in

Riyadh. Ibrahim, an Egyptian working as a pharmacist in the northern

town of `Ar'ar, was found guilty of having tried "through sorcery" to

separate a married couple, according to a Ministry of Interior

statement.

To read the letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah, please

visit:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/13/saudia18046.htm

For more information on Saudi Arabia, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=saudia

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/14/saudia18051.htm

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STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA

IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?

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