Ghosts in court
What sounds like a very active poltergeist has so troubled a Saudi Arabian family that they have decided to sue it in a Sharia court of law. In line with their culture, they describe the mischievous spirit as a “genie”.
They accuse it of theft – items taken include mobile phones – as well as assault by hurling rocks at them when they went out at night and leaving threatening voicemail messages. A family spokesperson said they heard a woman’s voice first and then a man’s, telling them they should get out of the house.
Since news of the invisible intruder was reported in Al-Watan newspaper, the story has caught the imagination of the media in many countries, including CNN and the BBC.
The family has lived in the house, at Mahd Al Dahab near the holy city of Medina, for 15 years but the disturbances began only two years ago. A local charity has moved the family to a temporary residence while the matter is investigated.
“We have to verify the truthfulness of this case despite the difficulty of doing so,” Sheikh Amr Al Salmi, the head of the court, told Al-Watan. “What makes this case and complaint more interesting is that it wasn’t filed by just one person. Every member of the family is part of this case.”
He could have added that what makes it even more interesting is how the court is going to deal with an invisible entity and how it will impose whatever restrictions are viewed as necessary.
The family has requested anonymity.
“We began hearing strange noises,” the head of the family told Al-Watan. “In the beginning, we didn’t take it seriously, but after that, stranger things started happening and the children got really scared when the genie began throwing stones.”
In Muslim cultures genies (or jinns) are usually invisible but can assume human or animal form. This is a belief that predates Islam.
In January this year, a court in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, jailed a Syrian man for threatening to summon genies to act against a Tunisian woman. He told her they would “intimidate her to madness before killing her and sending her to her hometown as a corpse if she didn’t marry him”. He was sentenced to three months in prison and then deported.
A judge in Ahmedabad, India, also had to cope with an alleged spirit in January this year. A court at Bhadra was hearing a case involving a dowry and the death of a young married woman, Varsha, who had apparently hanged herself in 2006 at the home of her in-laws.
When the girl’s mother was called to give evidence, her appearance changed and she appeared to go into a trance, claiming to have been possessed by a ghost and to be able to see the circumstances in which her daughter died.
She had previously made a statement claiming her daughter’s mother-in-law practiced black magic to get her killed.
The Times of India reported that it was not possible to cross-examine the mother in this condition so the hearing was adjourned for two weeks, to 27 January. The newspaper did not subsequently report the outcome of the case.
You may also find these related articles of interest:
In this page from Al-Watan (translated by Google) seems to be a retreat by the Judge and apologizes by the Newspaper:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alwatan.com.sa%2Fnews%2Fnewsdetail.asp%3Fissueno%3D3212%26id%3D110269%26groupID%3D0&sl=ar&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
What do you think about it?
I’ve taken a look at this and, although Google does its best, I’d prefer to wait until I see a proper Arabic translation before I make a comment. If any visitor can help with that, I’d be pleased to hear from them.