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By J.A. Getzlaff

June 07, 2000 | In the United Arab Emirates, a teacher and former housewife is spending four months in jail for putting a bad mojo on her former husband and his sister, according to a recent Reuters report.

The woman, angry with her ex-spouse for divorcing her, went to the country next door, Oman, where she hired a magician to conjure up a nasty spell for her former beloved and his sibling.

Apparently, the spell worked. At least psychologically. The man and his sister soon came down with a number of undiagnosed illnesses, which they attributed to the ex-wife's black magic. Believing they were possessed by demons, they sought retribution in court -- and won. The ex-wife was promptly whisked off to jail.

Recently, however, she was granted an appeal from a court in Sharjah, which informed the Gulf News that the "physical and psychological ailments" of the man and his sibling had no correlation with the ex-wife's visit to the magician.

The newspaper also said that it is common for Arab women to visit magicians in times of need -- as in "I need that Mercedes" or "I need you to come down with a rare and unsightly skin disease." Hey, maybe they've got something there.

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