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When Ali Sbatt got a contract with a Lebanese television station as a TV psychic it was like a dream come true. But the job he felt he had a natural talent for left him facing a potential death sentence.

For three years Ali became widely known by viewers who looked to him to be cured of their ills.

Then when the TV show folded in 2007, Ali set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Described by his family as a devout Shia Muslim, it was a trip he had been looking forward to for years.

However it was a journey which was to end in disaster.

After just fifteen days, Ali was arrested in his hotel room by the Mutaween, Saudi Arabia's religious police.

He was charged with sorcery and sentenced to death.

Since then, Ali's wife Samira has been appealing to the Lebanese President to intervene and to the Saudi King to quash the sentence.

But in the meantime Ali's life hangs in the balance.

Lucy Ash spoke to Samira Sbatt, and also to Christophe Wilcke, a Saudi Arabia expert from Human Rights Watch.