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.

Sign the Petition to halt the execution

More on BBC

Letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah bin Abd al-’Aziz Al Saud

Human Rights Watch

Earlier, her interrogators blocked her access to a lawyer and the judges, and denied her the right to professional legal representation, thus depriving her of the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses against her.

Quote from an article on Hands of Cain

Western Resistance

In November 2007 an Egyptian man was beheaded, after being charged with sorcery

More on Virtue Commission Members or “The religious police”

A Moroccan computer engineer has been sentenced to three years in jail for setting up a Facebook profile in the name of a member of the royal family.

Fouad Mourtada was arrested on 5 February on suspicion of stealing the identity of Prince Moulay Rachid, younger brother of King Mohammed VI.

The Casablanca court also ordered Mr Mourtada, 26, to pay a $1,300 fine.

The prosecution had urged the court to impose a sentence which set an example for others.

Mr Mourtada was convicted of “villainous practices linked to the alleged theft of the [prince’s] identity".

In his defence, he said he admired the prince, and that the Facebook entry was just intended to be a bit of fun.

‘Beaten unconscious’

A website supporting him published a letter addressed to the prince apologising for the incident.

The letter, reportedly penned by Mr Mourtada’s family, requested clemency.

“Fouad Mourtada, like thousands of people who create fake profiles of well-known personalities or celebrities on Facebook, has in no way acted in a willingness to cause nuisance to Your Highness, for whom he has always shown the greatest of respect,” the letter on the Help Fouad website reads.

Earlier this week some Moroccan bloggers went “on strike", suspending their regular blog entries for 24 hours in protest at Mr Mourtada’s detention.

According to the website, he told family members who visited him in jail that he had been blindfolded and beaten unconscious at the time of his arrest.

BBC

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I gotta say that it has been a pretty stupid idea of this guy to use the name of royal family.
But giving him a three year jail sentence for it?
I hope he gets a clemency, but I doubt it.
Here’s the link to the help page his friends set up and a link to their petition.

This case reminds me that there is still one young man, blogger, in jail since December and things have been very quiet around this case in the last month.
No more outcries from the US that I have heard of, now that Bush is busy in Africa.

Nor have I heard any more news of the so called “witch” in Saudi which is sentenced to death.

It seems that all these people are only good for the headlines and be forgotten after that

(Btw. the typos in the article above are all BBCs not mine)

Imbolc, a Pagan holiday, also called Candlemas (Lichtmess / Groundhog day) in the Christian world.

After the long winter and time of depression it is now time for the Earth to awake again.
Spring time is close and now is the time to light up candles to fire up the inner light in all of us to get rid of the dark hours of winter.

I spare you the part with God and Goddess awakening again, because that is not my way.
My God / Goddess is nature itself.
I don’t need a horned God to believe that nature is sacred.
But like I say, that’s just my way

I’m not sure on what date this should be celebrated.
Candlemas is celebrated on the second of February.
For me it would be either the new moon or the full moon.
I guess it would be the new moon, indicating growth. Makes sense, no?
Guess, I missed it again this year.

Oh well, never to late to light up candles

May Spring come soon and may the dark hours disappear!

This is day Nr. 6 - 359 left

Can you tell my why 200 or so years after the witchhunt the picture of the witch in many countries is still the one of an old, mean woman? Thanks to the church and the brothers Grimm and other fairy tale writers?

******

Willst Du, dass ich DIR die Zukunft voraussage?!

Dies ist Tag Nr. 6 - 359 uebrig

Koennt ihr mir sagen warum heute, ca. 200 Jahre nach der Hexenverfolgung immernoch das einer alten, verbitterten, gemeinen Frau in den Gedanken der meissten erscheint, wenn das Wort Hexe faellt? Dank an die Kirche und an die Gebrueder GRimm?!