Parents of Rizana to leave for Saudi on Friday

President directs Dy.FM to go all out to save girl:

Mohammed Naalir

COLOMBO: The parents of Rizana Nazik will leave for Saudi Arabia on Friday to plead for life of their daughter who is facing execution for the alleged murder of the infant of her Saudi employer.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila will accompany the duo.

Bhaila said the parents of the girl have already been brought to Colombo, for obtaining their travel documents from the Saudi embassy. The Deputy Minister said the humanitarian appeal should be made before July 16, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed him to take all possible steps to make the appeal before the deadline.

The Foreign Ministry is trying to obtain an appointment from the parents of the dead infant through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Saudi Arabia.

The Minister said they are trying to approach the parents of the dead child to plead for a pardon .

Deputy Minister said that the Sri Lankan Government respects the laws of Saudi Arabia. They can appeal only on compassionate grounds. Deputy Minister Bhaila further said President Rajapaksa personally called him and instructed him to suspend the foreign employment agency which sent this under-aged girl to Saudi Arabia on a duplicate passport and instructed him to commence investigations on how they obtained a fake birth certificate to get a passport.

Nazik a poor girl from Muttur arrived in Saudi Arabia on May 4, 2005 as a housemaid in the household of Naif Jiziyan Khalif Al Otaibi.

A few days later she was transferred to the family household in Dawadami about 390 km from Riyadh. She was serving there for some time.

On May 22, 2005 while the inexperienced girl was bottle feeding the four month old infant it chocked to death.

The employer argued that the girl deliberately killed the infant. All evidence collected after the incident was against the girl and she is in death row.

The parents (M. S. Sulthan Nazik-father, S. A. Rajeena-mother) of Rizana Nazik said they sent their daughter to Saudi Arabia as a domestic aide in May 2005 to overcome their poverty.

They did not know their daughter is in death row until they were informed by police and the Embassy. Some neighbours who listened to BBC news had informed them that their daughter is in death row for allegedly killing a four month old infant.

They said their aim is to meet their daughter who is in death row and seek a pardon from the infant’s family and the Saudi Government.

They said guided by their neighbours they approached the Foreign Employment Agency and they did not know the agency owners. They claimed that no money was paid to the agency to send their daughter to Saudi Arabia.