Lawyer seeks clemency for Lebanese facing execution in Saudi Arabia

Beirut - The lawyer of a Lebanese fortuneteller sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft made a last minute appeal on Thursday for him to be spared.

May al-Khassana told the German Press Agency dpa that she learned Ali Sibat was to be beheaded on Friday, but "up till now we don't have any official confirmation."

Sibat, a 49-year-old father of five, was arrested in May 2008, while he was on a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. On November 9 the following year a Saudi court ordered his execution for practicing witchcraft.

Before his arrest, Sibat used to work for a now defunct Lebanese satellite television channel where he used to predict the future to callers from around the world.

Saudi Arabia, a devout Muslim country, frowns on witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling, which it regards as polytheism.

Khassana said she has appealed to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri to intervene with Saudi authorities on behalf of Sibat.

"He is not a criminal," she said.

London-based Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in New York have also appealed for Sibat's death sentence to be overturned.

His wife, Samira Rahmoon, also appealed to the Saudi King Abdullah and begged him "for mercy for the father of her five children."

Relatives of Sibat, who hails from the village of Al Ain in eastern Lebanon, said he was denied a lawyer during his trial.

For most of Lebanese, the decision by the Saudi court to impose the death penalty on a Lebanese national who does not reside in the kingdom or work there is "unfair."

"We do not live in the Stone Age. He is not a criminal, he should be deported from Saudi Arabia and not be beheaded," a relative of Sibat, who requested anonymity, told dpa.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316800,lawyer-seeks-clemency-for-lebanese-facing-execution-in-saudi-arabia.html.