AHRC to help Rizana Nafeek’s appeal process

Mohammed RASOOLDEEN in Saudi Arabia

SAUDI ARABIA: As the July 16 deadline to file an appeal in the case of Rizana Nafeek, the 19- year-old Sri Lankan maid accused of strangling a four-month-old Saudi boy draws near, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has come forward and deposited an initial sum of SR 50,000 to begin the appeals process.

The AHRC is a non governmental human rights organisation that has been working on behalf of the young woman. The deposit was made on Thursday to the firm of Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, Attorneys at Law, in Riyadh, Arab News reported yesterday.

“We hope that this can be the beginning of the process that allows the law firm to now proceed in filing papers before the deadline,” said Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC. He added that the AHRC was doing this on behalf of various groups and individuals that have taken an active interest in the case.

Fernando told Arab News that this was only the first of three SR 50,000 payments to be made.

This will allegedly be the first legal counsel received by the accused since her arrest two years ago following her arrival in the Kingdom in May 2005. Upon her arrival, she was sent to work at the home of Naif J.K. Otaibi, a Saudi Government employee.

Shortly after being employed, Nafeek was assigned to take care of the family’s infant son and other household duties, despite having no apparent previous training in child care.

The tragedy occurred after only two weeks on the job when the infant allegedly began choking, while Nafeek was bottle-feeding him. Despite alleged cries by Nafeek for assistance, the child was pronounced dead. The parents immediately handed Nafeek over to police saying she had strangled the infant boy.

According to statements obtained by the Saudi police following her arrest, Nafeek initially confessed to the crime but later retracted her confession at the trial explaining that it was given under pressure of the moment, without proper legal representation or the presence of a translator.

On June 16, Nafeek was convicted of murder by strangulation and sentenced to death by a three-member panel of Shariah judges in the High Court of Dawadmi, 380 kilometres outside Riyadh.

A.M.J. Sadiq, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the Kingdom, told Arab News, “In my opinion some of the media outlets in Sri Lanka and abroad have only worsened an already sensitive situation by falsely reporting about the collection of blood money and the like allegedly to be paid to the family of the deceased child, which at no time has ever been the case.”