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Rizana Nafeek executed in Saudi Arabia
President Rajapaksa and the Government deplores the beheading of Miss Rizana Nafeek
Rizana Nafeek the Sri Lankan housemaid who was sentenced to death in
Saudi Arabia was beheaded last morning in Dawadamy, Saudi Arabia,
according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Despite the
assurances given as recently as last week by various diplomatic sources
that she would be released, Despite assurances as late as last week from
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia that she would be released, the
Saudi Arabian government went ahead with her execution
The relatives of the beheaded Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek gather outside their home in Muttur, Trincomalee. Pic by M.Murasil
the Saudi Arabian judiciary went ahead with her execution.
“President Rajapaksa and the Government deplores the beheading of Miss Rizana Nafeek,” a statement by the MEA released last evening said.
Last Saturday President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent a second appeal to the King of Saudi Arabia seeking her release and calling for a deferment of the execution until a settlement was reached between the parents of the deceased and the reconciliation committee negotiating on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.
“The Government of Sri Lanka pursued all avenues to have Miss Rizana Nafeek released from the death row and sent several Ministerial delegations that included the recent visits of Minister of External Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris, Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare, Dilan Perera, the delegation led by Governor of Western Province, Alawi Moulana, religious leaders and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Ministry of External Affairs,” according to the MEA.
Rizana had gone to Saudi Arabia in April 2005 to work in the house
of Saudi Arabian national Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al Otaibi. While she was
bottle-feeding an infant in her care, on 25th May, 2005 the child had
choked and died soon after.
She had been arrested on the day of the incident and according to Saudi Authorities confessed to the killing of the child. However she had later retracted her statement, claiming that her initial confession had been obtained under duress. In 2007 a threemember panel of judges from the Dawadami High Court headed by Chief Justice Abdullah Al-Rosaimi found Rizana Nafeek guilty of murdering the four-month-old child. An appeal against the beheading of the accused was filed on behalf of Rizana by a Riyadh-based law firm, later that year.
“The Government of Sri Lanka arranged for an appeal against the death sentence with the assistance of the Asian Human Rights Organisation based in Hong Kong, but the Superior Court of Saudi Arabia had confirmed the death sentence, according to the statement by the MEA.
Sri Lankan authorities had attempted to meet the father of the deceased but he had refused to meet any persons seeking a pardon for the housemaid. The case was shifted between higher and lower courts in Saudi Arabia.
However in September 2010 the Supreme Court in Riyadh upheld the
death sentence. In October that year President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent
the first letter to the government of Saudi Arabia requesting clemency
for Nafeek.
Source : http://sundaylankadeepa.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
She had been arrested on the day of the incident and according to Saudi Authorities confessed to the killing of the child. However she had later retracted her statement, claiming that her initial confession had been obtained under duress. In 2007 a threemember panel of judges from the Dawadami High Court headed by Chief Justice Abdullah Al-Rosaimi found Rizana Nafeek guilty of murdering the four-month-old child. An appeal against the beheading of the accused was filed on behalf of Rizana by a Riyadh-based law firm, later that year.
“The Government of Sri Lanka arranged for an appeal against the death sentence with the assistance of the Asian Human Rights Organisation based in Hong Kong, but the Superior Court of Saudi Arabia had confirmed the death sentence, according to the statement by the MEA.
Sri Lankan authorities had attempted to meet the father of the deceased but he had refused to meet any persons seeking a pardon for the housemaid. The case was shifted between higher and lower courts in Saudi Arabia.
However in September 2010 the Supreme Court in Riyadh upheld the
death sentence. In October that year President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent
the first letter to the government of Saudi Arabia requesting clemency
for Nafeek.Source : http://sundaylankadeepa.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
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