May Al-Khansa told The Associated Press that Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Al-Najjar informed her of the decision to lift the death sentence on Sibat following his meeting with the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon.
“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 Al-Najjar after he discussed the case earlier with the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon. “He promised there would be good news,” she said.
There was no official confirmation from Saudi authorities on the cancellation of the death sentence. Black magic is prohibited in Saudi Arabia and several sorcerers have been arrested in the Kingdom in the past. Sibat, 49, father of five children, was arrested in May 2008 while he was in Madinah. A Saudi court sentenced him in November to death for practicing sorcery.
Before his arrest Sibat had been working for a Lebanese satellite channel, which has now stopped operation, where he used to engage in live fortune-telling to those who contacted him from around the world.
Sibat’s family recently held a press conference in Beirut and called upon the Lebanese president and other top officials to intervene and request authorities in Riyadh not to impose the death sentence on Sibat. The family argued that Sibat did not deserve such a “harsh punishment” because he worked from Lebanon and Lebanon’s law does not impose capital punishment on fortune-tellers.
Al-Khansa claimed her client was cheated. “A cleric named Abdul Rahman called Sibat after he arrived in the Kingdom and told him that the husband of his sister had married an Egyptian woman, seeking his help to protect his sister from being divorced,” she said.
“When Sibat went to Abdul Rahman he was surprised to see police officers waiting there to arrest him. This incident proves that my client had not practiced any black magic in the Kingdom,” the lawyer said. Sibat does not have a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, and Khansa is acting as a legal adviser to him and his family back in Lebanon.
— With input from agencies
