International human rights organization Amnesty International has said the beheading of a Saudi Arabian woman over “sorcery” and “witchcraft” is “shocking,” and called on the ultra-conservative gulf kingdom to end the continued use of the death penalty. Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar became the 79th person executed in the ultra-conservative gulf kingdom this year after being sentenced to death in the northern Jawf province, the state SPA news agency reported. She was accused by the authorites of practicing “witchcraft and sorcery.” “It is wrong and disgusting to kill anyone in this way,” said one rights activist in the country. He told Bikyamasr.com via telephone that “doing this just gets people thinking we live in the Dark Ages.” “The charges of ‘witchcraft and sorcery' are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia and to use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling,” said Philip Luther Amnesty International's interim Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program. “While we don't know the details of the acts which the authorities accused Amina of committing, the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion.” The execution is the second similar such execution in recent months. In September, a Sudanese national was beheaded in Medina after being convicted on “sorcery” charges. He had allegedly confessed after being tortured and was tried without a lawyer. The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost tripled this year. So far at least 79 people – including five women – have been executed, compared to at least 27 in 2010. Hundreds more people are believed to be under sentence of death, many of them convicted of drugs offences. They have often had no defence lawyer and in many cases have not been informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. “The huge rise in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia is deeply disturbing,” said Luther. “We regularly call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to impose a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Where the death penalty is used, under international law it should only be applied to the most serious crimes.” Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty to a wide range of offences ranging from murder and rape to blasphemy, apostasy, sorcery, adultery and drugs-related offences, Amnesty reported. In December 2010, Saudi Arabia was one of a minority of states voting against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/7nX76 Tags: Amnesty, Death Penalty, Sorcery, Witchcraft, Woman Section: Human Rights, Latest News, Saudi Arabia, Women
