Barbaric Is As Barbaric Does

There are parts of the world that are still ignorant, barbaric cesspools that kill people for witchcraft and sorcery.  In Saudi Arabia it happens routinely under color of law.

March 7, 2013 - Last month, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, a 20-year old mother of two was stripped naked and tortured until she confessed to practicing sorcery. Then she was burned alive on the local rubbish dump in front of a crowd of fellow villagers.

Although horrific, this event was not unusual. The Constitutional and Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea has estimated that as many as 150 people accused of sorcery — mostly women — are murdered every year in just one of the country’s 20 provinces. Before they are killed, many suffer prolonged, public and often sexual torture. Two things made last month’s murder exceptional: it led to public outrage, and two alleged perpetrators have been arrested.

 - From here.

September 21, 2011 (LONDON) – A migrant worker from Sudan was beheaded by sword in Medina by the Saudi government for practising occultism on Monday, despite the efforts of international lobbyists.

Execution by beheading, Saudi Arabia (Amnesty International)

The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced the execution of Abdul Hamid bin Hussein Mostafa al-Fakki for the crime of "witchcraft and sorcery", which contravenes shariah law, according to the Saudi Gazette.
It was reported by the Egyptian news agency, Bikya Masr, that the court accused al-Fakki of "producing a spell designed to lead to the reconciliation of his client’s divorced parents."

Since al-Fakki’s arrest in 2005 and conviction in 2007 the London-based human rights advocacy organisation Amnesty International (AI) have been gravely concerned about his fate. 

Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme said al-Fakki was "convicted solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and religion".

AI claim al-Fakki was entrapped by a member of the Saudi religious police claiming that he would pay 6,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (US$1,600) for a spell which would make his father divorce his second wife and return to the agent provacateur’s biological mother.

- From here.

12 December 2011 . . .

A Saudi woman has been executed for practising "witchcraft and sorcery", the country's interior ministry says.  A statement published by the state news agency said Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was beheaded on Monday in the northern province of Jawf. The ministry gave no further details of the charges which the woman faced.  The woman was the second person to be executed for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia this year. A Sudanese man was executed in September.  'Threat to Islam' BBC regionalist analyst Sebastian Usher says the interior ministry stated that the verdict against Ms Nasser was upheld by Saudi Arabia's highest courts, but it did not give specific details of the charges.  The London-based newspaper, al-Hayat, quoted a member of the religious police as saying that she was in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses. Our correspondent said she was arrested in April 2009.  But the human rights group Amnesty International, which has campaigned for Saudis previously sentenced to death on sorcery charges, said it had never heard of her case until now, he adds. A Sudanese man was executed in September on similar charges, despite calls led by Amnesty for his release.  In 2007, an Egyptian national was beheaded for allegedly casting spells to try to separate a married couple. Last year, a Lebanese man facing the death penalty on charges of sorcery, relating to a fortune-telling television programme he presented, was freed after the Saudi Supreme Court decreed that his actions had not harmed anyone.

- From here.

A Saudi man has been beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft, the state news agency SPA says. The man, Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, was found in possession of books and talismans, SPA said. He had also admitted adultery with two women, it said.  The execution took place in the southern Najran province, SPA reported.  Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned executions for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.  Last year, there were reports of at least two people being executed for sorcery. Mr Asiri was beheaded after his sentence was upheld by the country's highest courts, the Saudi news agency website said. No details were given of what he was found guilty of beyond the charges of witchcraft and sorcery. 

- From this 19 June 2012 report from the BBC.