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UAE laws: Dh50,000 fine, jail term for those engaging in witchcraft and sorcery

Punishable acts include using illegitimate means to affect the 'body, heart, mind or will of another person'

Published: Mon 17 Oct 2022, 4:51 PM

Updated: Mon 17 Oct 2022, 9:46 PM

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File photo

A federal law in the UAE criminalises sorcery, the country’s public prosecution has reiterated.

In an awareness post shared by the UAE's Public Prosecution on its official social media networks, residents have been warned against practising, promoting or assisting in any act of sorcery or witchcraft in the country.

The authority informed people of the Article 366 of the Federal Decree-Law No.31 of 2021, which states the punishment for such crimes. “Whoever commits for exploitation or harm of others an act of illusion, sorcery, or quackery, whether in fact or by deceit, with or without consideration, shall be sentenced to imprisonment and fined a monetary penalty of not less than Dh50,000,” the prosecution said.

The acts include:

  • “Committing acts, sayings words, or using illegitimate or logically unacceptable means or methods to affect the body, heart, mind, or will of another person, whether directly or in directly, in fact or as an imagination.
  • “Deluding the eyes of people or taking control of their senses or hearts by any means to make them see a thing on the contrary to the truth thereof, for the purpose of exploiting them or affecting their minds or beliefs.”

The following categories could be punished with a jail sentence and/or a fine:

  • "Any person seeking assistance of a magician with the aim to influence the body, heart, mind or will of others.
  • “A person bringing or importing to the State, having possession, acquiring or disposing by any means of disposition of books, talismans, materials or tools intended for sorcery or witchcraft.
  • “A person promoting, by any means, acts of sorcery or witchcraft.”

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