President requests Saudi King for release of Lankan maid
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has requested the King of Saudi Arabia to
release the Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek who faces death sentence in Saudi
jail on charges of murdering an infant boy, states a release from the
Department of Government Information Ministry of Mass Media and In
formation.
Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek was arrested in May 2005 on
charges of murdering an infant in her care. She was 17 years old at the
time. On 16 June 2007, she was sentenced to death by a court in Dawadmi,
a town west of the capital Riyadh. The sentence was subsequently upheld
by the Court of Cassation and sent for ratification by the Supreme
Judicial Council.
However, the Council sent it back to the lower court for further
clarification. The case then went back and forth between the courts
until on or around October 25, 2010, when the Supreme Court in Riyadh
upheld the death sentence.
The case was then sent to the King for ratification of the death
sentence; if the King does ratify the death sentence, Rizana Nafeek will
be at imminent risk of execution by beheading.
On October 17 last year President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with Prince
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the
Asia Corporate Dialogue Summit held in the Kuwait City. Crown Prince
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is presently the Vice Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosque, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of
Saudi Arabia, as well as the most senior member of the House of Saud,
next to King of Saudi Arabia.
At the bilateral meeting with Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud, President Mahinda Rajapaksa thanked Saudi Arabia for standing
shoulder to shoulder with Sri Lanka in the US sponsored resolution
against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council session in March. Also,
they discussed matters connected with the bilateral relationship between
Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.
Subsequently, Sri Lanka President came up with the subject of
Housemaid Rizana Nafeek of Muthur, who has been condemned in Saudi
Arabia. Prince Salman, the Crown Prince who is expected to succeed the
King of Saudi Arabia was earlier the Governor of Riyadh and he handled
files connected with the Sri Lankan House Maid Rizana Nafeek. Sri Lankan
President took a personal interest in the case of Rizana Nafeek. |