Lankan mission in Riyadh slams report on ‘worship’ issue

Mohammed Rasooldeen

The Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia rejected reports in Colombo claiming a Sri Lankan domestic worker was arrested in Saudi Arabia for worshipping a Buddha statue.

Reacting to the reports, a senior official at the mission said the story was totally fabricated and had nothing to do with worship.

The diplomat, who had met the domestic worker in jail yesterday, said he had been booked on some other charges by Police in the Ummul Hammam district.

According to the official, the suspect who works as a driver, had visited another Saudi’s house to resolve a dispute involving a housemaid there.

The suspect said the maid was his relative and during the dispute, Police arrested him.

In his statement to the embassy, the worker said his Saudi sponsor had nothing to do with the case and had surrendered his passport and other documents to prison authorities for deportation. It has been alleged those employed in Muslim countries are prevented from practising their religious faiths and those found doing so are punished severely. A Sri Lankan woman was recently arrested for practising witchcraft after she allegedly gazed at a child in a shopping complex while wearing a black cord around her wrist, a report said. An organisation accused the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment of not educating Sri Lankan workers travelling to Saudi Arabia on the country’s religious laws.

The diplomat, responding to the allegations, said: “So far, no Sri Lankan has been found guilty of practising his religion in the Kingdom.”

He said no one had been executed for practising their religion. The official said Vesak was observed at Lankan missions in the Kingdom recently. More than 20,000 expatriate workers attended the functions in Riyadh and Jeddah, he said.