It seems nearly unbelievable with everything we know regarding Salem, Massachusetts and the events that happened there that such a thing could revisit itself on our own timescape, and yet. In Saudi Arabia, a woman has been accused of witchcraft and further - has been sentenced to death by the testimony of witnesses who claim that she 'bewitched' then.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement that the kingdom's religious police had arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and that the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."

Women have historically suffered the brunt of this patriarchal regime in which mere testimony by a man can end your life. In Falih's case, several witnesses were coerced and testified that she had bewitched them to convict her last April. It is known that she initially has signed a confession under duress, but later recanted stating that she was an illiterate woman and did not understand the document that she was forced to fingerprint as signature.

In September 2006, an appeals court then subsequently overturned the initial ruling of death based on her retracted confession. However a lower court then reissued the death penalty "for the benefit of public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."

According to HRW.org, Saudi law does not have a written penal code, and witchcraft is not defined as a crime. The Law of Criminal Procedure of 2002 grants defendants the right to be tried in person, to have a lawyer present during interrogation and trial, and to cross-examine any prosecution witnesses. The law obliges law enforcement officers to treat detainees humanely.

In an unrelated case on November 2, Saudi Arabia executed Mustafa Ibrahim for sorcery in Riyadh. Ibrahim, an Egyptian who was working as a pharmacist in the northern town of `Ar’ar, was found guilty of having tried “through sorcery” to separate a married couple, according to a Ministry of Interior statement.

To sign a petition to King Abdullah requesting a halt to the execution of Fazwah Falih, please visit this link .