Lankan escapes hangman's noose in Kuwait

Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

SAUDI ARABIA: A Sri Lankan expatriate in Kuwait who was to be hanged Tuesday on conviction of murder escaped the hangman's noose due to the timely intervention of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Kuwait.

Kottaduwa Gamage Sanjaya Ruwankumara, 27, from Weligama was convicted of homicide along with four other Sri Lankans who were sentenced for life imprisonment for murdering Iranganie, 52, in May 2004.

Iranganie was a Sri Lankan woman who was lending money for her countrymen on interests by retaining the borrowers' passports as collateral. The sentence was given to the five Sri Lankans who were found guilty in April this year.

The others who were serving life imprisonment include Kodituwakku Arachchige Samantha, Ampearachchige Niran Manjula, Pannikkadeva Ranjith Wijesiri, Ranasinghe Arachchige Sanjeewa Ruwankumara.

"The notice of hanging Ruwankumara at 6.30 a.m., on Tuesday was issued on Sunday by the Kuwaiti court and the embassy made a last minute appeal to the Emir of Kuwait to pardon the convict on humanitarian grounds, " S.C.A.M. Zuhyle, Sri Lankan Ambassador in Kuwait said, adding that the mission received the notice of the postponement of the death sentence just eight hours before Kumara was to be hanged.

On behalf of the five accused, a Kuwaiti philanthropist gave the bereaved family a sum of Rs 1.8 million as blood money.

The envoy said that he would now make a fresh appeal to the Kuwaiti governorate office to pardon the accused and commute the punishment accordingly.