NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: Good Thing Carnac The Magnificent Never Made A Pilgrimage To Saudi Arabia
Ali Hussain Sibat, who hosted a popular satellite TV call-in show in which he “would predict the future … and give advice to his audience,” was arrested in May 2008 by religious police and charged with sorcery while on a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. In November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found the Lebanese father of five guilty and sentenced him to death. According to Sibat’s attorney May El Khansa, the Court of Appeal in Mecca remanded the case back to the original court “stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent,” reports CNN:
On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed. …
[T]he judges in Medina issued a statement expressing that Sibat deserved to be executed for having continually practiced black magic on his show, adding that this sentence would deter others from practicing sorcery. Arab News reports that the case will now return to the appeals court in Mecca.
Amnesty International has condemned the verdict and is demanding that Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah stop the execution and free Sibat.
[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious
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