A solution to the Halting problem

[ This is not about this Halting problem. ]

The Halting problem

The problem is how to halt execution of Ali Hussain Sibat. I cite CNN as of 31 March 2010: "A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday [PF: 2 April] the man's lawyer said Wednesday [PF: 31 March]." Amnesty International has reported about this case on 8 Dec 2009 [Article from the Amnesty International Website]. I became aware of the case by CNN's article on 19 Mar 2010. Update: CNN reported on Thursday, 1 April 2010 that Sibat "won't face beheading Friday [PF: 2 April], his lawyer said Thursday [PF: 1 April]".


The solution to the Halting problem

I am pretty sure that Sibat's lawyer, his family, Amnesty International, Lebanese government and many other individuals and organizations are working frantically to stop the beheading. Here is an online petition that I ask you to sign if you agree with me that sorcery does not qualify for the death penalty. It takes a lot of public outcry to solve this Halting problem. This is what I call a solution: a) beheading does not take place + b) the public outcry, also with the contribution of the informed and outspoken online society, made a difference.

Update: I have meanwhile (11pm CEST, 1 April 2010) contacted the Saudi Embassy in Germany, and brought the petition to their attention. I also asked them to pass on the information to the Saudi Ministry of Justice whose email address / fax address is not available on the web. I will sent an update once the petition reaches 1000 signatures and then again for 10.000 signatures.

Update: Join this Facebook group which fights for the same cause. This group is growing rapidly and it is great information centre on Sibat's case, when compared to my humble blog post. The group endorses the petition.


Disclaimer

Please note that the petition and this post do not attempt to make any general statement about Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, their juridical systems or governments (Saudi Arabia's, in particular), about Sharia, Islam, or you name it. Instead the petition and this post is concerned with the specific case of Ali Hussain Sibat and with the charge and death penalty in this case in particular.

A personal note: I condemn with my whole authority the charge and the punishment in question on the grounds of information provided by Amnesty International and CNN reporters modulo personal judgement.


Privacy issues

You are only required to share your email address with PetitionsOnline. Their privacy rules are such that they do not share these email addresses with anyone for whatever reason. PetitionsOnline only uses the email addresses for some forms of validation. If you decide to share your email address with me (the petition's initiator), I will not share your email addresses with anyone for whatever reason. The primary purpose of the petition is to be online and allow us to refer the target of the petition to it.


Thanks to everyone who has signed already.

Thank you
Ralf Lämmel

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