Saudi Arabia executes woman for sorcery offences

The Saudi authorities have executed a woman accused of sorcery.

The London-based al-Hayat newspaper quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 (£500) per session.

The alleged witch was tried according to Saudi law, he added.

Initially she was forced into single combat with a specially trained satan-seeking goat in a public square in Jeddah.

Armed with a broom (symbolic of her supposed crime brushing money out of people's pockets) she attempted to hold off the demon-sniffing beast.

This she managed to do.

However, the authorities believed the goat may itself have been influenced by Beelzebub and it was later questioned and, when its answers were deemed inadequate, was stoned to death.

The accused sorceress, meanwhile, was re-arrested and the charge of bribing a religious police goat was added to her list of supposed offences.

She was then placed in the official ducking stool and plunged headfirst into a river. She was unable to free herself and was therefore deemed guilty as charged.

The execution brings the total to 76 this year in Saudi Arabia.

In September, a Sudanese man, Abdul Hamid bin Hussain bin Moustafa al-Fakki, was also put to death in Saudi Arabia for sorcery.