SAUDI ARABIA: SRI LANKAN WOMAN FACES BEHEADING ON WITCHCRAFT CHARGE

April 19, 2012: A Sri Lankan woman could face the death penalty by beheading in Saudi Arabia after she was arrested on suspicion of casting a spell on a 13-year-old girl during a family shopping trip, a police spokesman said.
The daily Okaz reported that a Saudi man had complained his daughter had "suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman" in a shopping mall in the port city of Jeddah.
"He reported her to the security forces, asking for her arrest and the specialised units dealt with the situation swiftly and succeeded in arresting her," Okaz reported.
"The punishment is always beheading for anyone found guilty of witchcraft," a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist, Waleed Abu al-Khair, told Reuters. (Sources: Reuters, 19/04/2012)