From the New York Times:
Published:
April 24, 1692April 24, 2010
SALEM, MASS.CAIRO — The sorcerer still has his head.But for how long?
For more than two years, Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon has been held in a prison in Saudi Arabia, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. His head is to be chopped off by an executioner wielding a long, curved sword.
His crime: manipulating spirits, predicting the future, concocting potions and conjuring spells on a call-in television show called “The Hidden” on a Lebanese channel, Scheherazade. It was, in effect, a Middle Eastern psychic hot line.
“Sorcery is the ability to influence matters that affect people’s lives through the use of spirits,” said Abdulaziz AlGasim, a retired Saudi judge. “It is impossible to prove such an act except through confession, and confessions are suspect.”
The authorities say that Mr. Sibat confessed.
We’ve made this mistake and 318 years later we’re not very proud of it. Let him go.