U.S. group appeals to Saudi king to spare her life, prosecute religious police
President Bush with King Abdullah
A Saudi Arabian court's decision to execute a woman for witchcraft has drawn the protest of international human rights groups.
The trial and conviction of Fawza Falih is a "miscarriage of justice," said Human Rights Watch in an appeal to King Abdullah, the BBC reported.
Among Falih's accusers is a man who alleged she made him impotent.
The American rights group is asking the Saudi ruler to void the conviction and to bring charges against the country's religious police, who detained her in 2005 and allegedly beat her, the BBC said.
Saudi Arabia's religious police, or Mutaween, enforce Islamic law in accord with the government's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
The illiterate Falih allegedly was forced to fingerprint a confession she could not read.
Human Rights Watch argued Falih was tried for the undefined crime of witchcraft and convicted based on written statements of people who claimed she bewitched them.
Falih and her representatives were not allowed to attend most of the hearings, Human Rights Watch pointed out, asserting the trial failed to meet the "safeguards" in the Saudi justice system.
A Saudi appeal court decided Falih should not be executed, but the law courts re-imposed the death sentence, declaring it to be in the public interest.
In December, international outrage preceded a decision by King Abdullah to pardon a gang-rape victim sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her.
President Bush weighed in on the issue, saying he would be angered if something similar happened to one of his daughters.
Saudi officials insisted the sentence was an internal affair but apparently became aware the issue was hurting the kingdom's image in the U.S.
Justice Minister Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheik said the pardon didn't mean the king doubted the country's judges but that he was acting in the "interests of the people."
"The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair," al-Sheik said, according to the Al-Jazirah newspaper.
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