Rogue job agency under probe

Rizana: Mercy mission begins:

Manjula Fernando and Mohammed Nalir

COLOMBO: The Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Ministry has commenced investigations on the Foreign Employment Agency which allegedly sent underage Rizana Nazik to Saudi Arabia on a fraudulent travel document.

The controversial foreign employment agency was banned by the Ministry on the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa no sooner this problem was brought to light.

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hussein Bhaila left for Saudi Arabia on a mission to save Rizana’s life.

The team that left for Riyadh comprised Jammiyathul Ulama Representative Moulavi M.B.M.Zarook, Director General of Middle East and North Africa Affairs Desk at the Foreign Ministry Ibrahim Sahib Ansar and Rizana’s parents M.S. Sultan Nazik and S.A. Razeena. The Deputy Minister is to meet Rizana first according to Ministry sources.

The Deputy Minister will also try to get Rizana’s parents to meet the parents of the deceased infant to appeal for clemency.

“A meeting with them is in Deputy Minister’s programme but the infant’s father is out on business thus a confirmation of the appointment is still pending,” official sources said.

He will also try to fix meetings with the Riyadh Governor, Head of the Saudi Arabia’s Shoora Council (the Speaker) and Chief Priests of the two Holy Mosques in Mecca and Medina.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Saudi Arabia has requested the media to give utmost prominence to Rizana’s case.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is playing a major role in Rizana’s case and making great attempts to save Rizana from the death penalty.

It has agreed to meet the full payment for the lawyers which will add up to about Rs.4.5 million (Riyal 150,000). The first instalment of Riyal 50,000 was paid by the AHRC on July 14.

Rizana is on death row since June 16, 2007 after a three member panel of a religious court under Sharia Law found her guilty of strangling a four month old infant, the son of Naif Otaibi who works at the Finance Ministry in Riyadh.

The Otaibi family accused Rizana of strangling their son, when the child suffocated while being bottle fed by Rizana. The incident took place in 2005.

The inexperienced girl has been sent to Saudi Arabia to serve as a domestic aide by her family through a local job agency. She was sent to work for the Otaibi family few days after she arrived in Riyadh and was entrusted to bottle feed the infant.

News agencies quoted the Deputy Minister as saying the sentenced girl was in good health and had spoken to her parents several times over the phone. No news has yet been received by the Sri Lanka mission in Riyadh if the dead infant’s parents would be willing to pardon the girl.