Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery.

Abdul Hamid al-Fakki "practiced witchcraft and sorcery," which are illegal under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki, who is aged about 36, was arrested on 8 December 2005 in the city of Madina by the Mutawa’eenreligious police, officially called the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). He was accused of practising sorcery, after being entrapped by the CPVPV. A man working for the CPVPV approached ‘Abdul Hamid and asked him to produce a spell that would lead to the man’s father separating from his second wife and returning to his first wife, the man’s mother. ‘Abdul Hamid apparently accepted to do this in exchange for 6,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (approximately US$1,600).

He apparently took an advance of 2,000 riyals from the man, together with the names of his father and the father’s second wife, as well as the names of their mothers, and agreed to meet the man afterwards to deliver his work. He went to the agreed meeting place and was seen by CPVPV agents getting into the man’s car. He delivered his work, consisting of nine pieces of paper with codes written on them with saffron, and received the rest of the money. He was then arrested while in possession of bank notes whose serial numbers had been recorded by the CPVPV.

He was questioned and apparently beaten, and is believed to have confessed that he did carry out acts of sorcery in a bid to solve the family problems of the man who had approached him.