MADINA: Legal experts and scholars have differing views on the courtroom legitimacy of claiming to be the victim of magic spells when defending illegal actions. Commenting on the case of a Madina court judge held on corruption charges who has said that he was “under a spell” at the time of his offenses, lawyers have said that with such claims “difficult to prove”, their admissibility would “open the way for any criminal to get out of Shariah and legal responsibility”. “Claims of magic are not admissible in investigations into security and criminal cases, and even if we were to suppose that the judge had been under a spell, that wouldn't make any difference in the course of sentencing or in laws and regulations,” said Saud Al-Hujaili of the Arab Lawyers Committee. Lawyer Majed Qaroub sees the issue differently. “It's a complicated and interesting case, the first time that investigation bodies have been presented with such a defense claiming the person was unconscious of his actions for whatever reason,” Qaroub said. “This requires medical and forensic investigation to verify whether there was partial or complete influence on all the judge's actions.” It might also require investigators to look into every one of the judge's alleged crimes over the same period to establish whether his claims relate to all of them or only some of them, he added. Ghazi Al-Mutairi, a professor from the Islamic University said that claims of magic “can be no justification” to escape legal responsibility. “This is all the more so in cases of financial and administrative corruption, as they require a well-versed and professional, rational mind,” he said. The Madina judge, who remains in custody on charges of accepting large bribes to arrange illegal ownership of real estate, with businessmen, state employees and seven engineering and planning firms suspected of involvement, told investigators that a broker had “taken control of his thoughts” to make the judge pass cases “without him being conscious of committing any illegal act”. The judge said he was later cured by “ruqya,” or Qur'anic recitation. Lawyer Saleh Al-Saq'abi believes that difficulties in verifying such claims could “open a Pandora's Box” if they were accepted. “Anyone could come along and commit a crime and say he was under a spell,” Al-Saq'abi said. “This sort of thing must be established not by a practitioner of ruqya but by all the circumstances surrounding the crime,” he said. “How, for instance, did the judge know he was under a spell, and how did he know who did it? He could only know that either through supernatural works, which is impossible, or by asking someone who practices magic to uncover the identity of the person, which is impermissible.” Sources at the Madina court where the judge practiced have said, meanwhile, that he had exhibited a “change in behavior” over the last two years. “He became very irritable, swore at defendants and claimants and threw them and witnesses out of court,” the sources said. “He would pour with sweat when he looked at someone and perform ruqya readings to himself.” Sheikh Abdullah Masoud, one of the most renowned practitioners of ruqya in Madina, was clear: “Controlling someone's mind and behavior is well-known and proven in the Qur'an and the Sunna,” he said.
