Sarajevo Municipality Bans Fortunetelling

[ted_bloody_maul]

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: A municipality in Sarajevo has banned fortunetelling and sorcery and will impose fines on those caught practicing either, it said in a statement Wednesday.

The Novo Sarajevo municipality's new regulation said that people involved in "sorcery, fortunetelling and similar swindle" could be fined €100 to €300 (US$145 to US$435), the statement from the municipality's press office said.

That also includes people who "advertise such activities or incite other people to use services of fortunetellers."

The new regulations also foresee fines for accidentally or intentionally sprinkling other people with dirty water while sweeping, hitting other people with stones, ice, snowballs, food or other objects and knocking on someone's door or calling on the telephone without a particular reason.

The municipality did not say whether fortunetelling and sorcery were a widespread problem in this part of Sarajevo or the reason for the new rules, but all six Sarajevo municipalities have lately taken steps to impose some order on urban life.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/ ... elling.php

 

[BuggeritupDave]

Ah well, it is East Europe. I suppose it's an improvement on burning etc.

 

[Heckler]

Let's send Derek Acora and James Van Douche over there for 'Celebrity Banged up Abroad'.

 

[_Lizard23_]

Actually there are 'anti-divination' laws current in quite a few US states as far as I'm aware - they mostly seem to specify that it is not allowed to tell fortunes for profit. A lot of people get around it by being 'spiritual councillors' or claiming that it is part of a religious practice (which I assume is how the Spiritualist Church gets away with it), but a case of someone going to court crops up occasionally.

As I understand it, Australia also has some anti-divination laws and in the UK you are on frankly shaky ground thanks to the Fraudulent Mediums Act. I'm not sure about the rest of the world.

It's why at the end of those awful Colin Fry/John Edward shows there is usually some disclaimer about 'being for entertainment purposes only'.

So it's really not that unusual.

 

[Pete Younger]

calling on the telephone without a particular reason.

We could do with that here, no more nuisance calls.