Ohal Grietzer on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:42:24 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> woman to be executed for witchcraft |
Fawza Falih has been sentenced to death by a Saudi Court for the charge of "witchcraft". The sentence was reversed on an appeal and than reinstated by the highest court in Saudi Arabia, now only the King of Saudi Arabia can grant clemency. Last year the US approved a multi-billion dollar aid package to the Saudi Kingdom. A few phone calls to the Saudi Embassy or to US Congress people could apply enough pressure on the King to grant clemency and save this woman's life. Here are a few suggestions. (You can always call after hours and leave a message or several messages.) There is a BBC article about the case and a link to the Human Rights Watch page below. Please forward this email: Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia 601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20037 (202) 342-3800 Information Office: (202) 337-4076 (202) 337-4134 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-6225 Majority Phone: (202)224-4651 Minority Phone: (202) 224-6797 Senator Joe Biden (Chairman) 201 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-5042 Fax: 202-224-0139 Barbra Boxer(member SFRC) 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-3553New York: HRH King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud Royal Court Riyadh 11111 Saudi Arabia HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/14/saudia18051.htm Letter from Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/13/saudia18046.htm BBC ARTICLE Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft. In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice. The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read. Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent. Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened. 'Undefined' crime The US-based group is asking the Saudi ruler to void Ms Falih's conviction and to bring charges against the religious police who detained her and are alleged to have mistreated her. Its letter to King Abdullah says the woman was tried for the undefined crime of witchcraft and that her conviction was on the basis of the written statements of witnesses who said that she had bewitched them. Human Rights Watch says the trial failed to meet the safeguards in the Saudi justice system. The confession which the defendant was forced to fingerprint was not even read out to her, the group says. Also Ms Falih and her representatives were not allowed to attend most of the hearings. When an appeal court decided she should not be executed, the law courts imposed the death sentence again, arguing that it would be in the public interest. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org