Sri Lankan Woman Faces Beheading For Witchcraft ‘Cast Spell On Saudi Teen’
April 19 2012, Published 12:30 p.m. ET
A woman in Saudi Arabia could be beheaded after she was accused of practicing witchcraft.
The Sri Lankan woman was arrested when a local man told police that she had cast a spell on his 13-year-old daughter.
“My daughter suddenly started acting in an abnormal way and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman,” he told officials about the alleged encounter in a Jeddah shopping mall.
The daily Okaz claims that the father then reported the alleged “sorcerer” to security forces “asking for her arrest and the specialized units dealt with the situation swiftly and succeeded in arresting her.”
“The punishment is always beheading for anyone found guilty of witchcraft,” Saudi lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair told Reuters.
Saudi Arabian judges try court cases using Islamic Sharia law but they have come under fire for having beheading as a form of punishment.
Amnesty International reported that a woman was put to death by the barbaric ritual last December after being convicted of “sorcery and witchcraft,” the second case that year.
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