April 22, 2010 - ILoubnan - Death-row Lebanese sorcerer; likely to get reprieve

RIYADH - A Lebanese man facing execution for sorcery in Saudi Arabia is likely to get a reprieve after top Lebanese officials pressed Riyadh over the case, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

The death sentence for Ali Sibat, a TV presenter arrested in May 2008 for engaging in sorcery while on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, will probably be lifted soon, May Khansa said, citing Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar.

"We do not have anything official. It seems they are going to cancel the sentence," Khansa told AFP by telephone from Beirut. She said she spoke with Najjar after he discussed the case earlier with the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon.

"He promised there would be good news," she said. "He promised that things are going to be fine." Sibat does not have a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, and Khansa is acting as a legal advisor to him and his family back in Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law allows the death sentence for performing magic, sorcery and similar actions, considering them a heretical act. Sibat, a father of five who was known for making predictions on Lebanese television programmes that were broadcast by satellite into Saudi Arabia, says he was entrapped while on an umrah minor pilgrimage, according to Khansa.

While he was in Medina someone working undercover for the Saudi religious police hired him to perform some sorcery-like acts and he was then arrested, she explained.

Khansa said Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman and other top officials have stressed to the Saudis that what Sibat did is common and legal elsewhere outside of Saudi Arabia. "It's not a crime under Lebanese law," she said.

Rights groups have expressed concern about Sabat's case and similar ones pending in Saudi Arabia and have accused Saudi courts of sanctioning a literal witch-hunt by the religious police.