The lawyer for Ali Hussain Sibat, a fortune-teller on a Lebanese TV show, says Saudi Arabia plans to behead her client tomorrow. (This is not an April Fools’ Day joke.)
Sibat, 49, is Lebanese citizen, but was arrested by Saudi religious police who recognized him from his show while he was on a Muslim pilgrimage to Medina two years ago. He was accused of sorcery and black magic, convicted of witchcraft last fall and sentenced to death.
CNN is trying to confirm the news with the Saudi Ministry of Justice. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been appealing to King Abdullah and his country’s government to stop the execution, and to halt “its increasing use of charges of ‘witchcraft,’ crimes that are vaguely defined and arbitrarily used.”
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