RIYADH, 10 July 2007 — A high-level Sri Lankan delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila will arrive here soon to make a personal appeal for clemency to the parents of an infant that died under the care of a Sri Lankan woman who came to Saudi Arabia after turning 17, allegedly with documents forged by the employment recruiter that gave a false date of birth.
“As a democratic country, we respect the laws of the host country,” Bhaila told Arab News. “However, we want to make a personal appeal to the parents to consider a pardon for this girl who had committed the murder when she was a minor.”
In May 2005, Rizana Nafeek was assigned to take care of a Saudi family’s infant child. After two weeks on the job, the child died under her care. The parents said that Rizana strangled the child to death.
Sri Lankan officials said that Rizana initially confessed to the crime while in custody, but that during the trial she explained that the confession — which was allegedly made shortly after her arrest at a police station with no translators (Rizana doesn’t speak Arabic) — was made under pressure of the moment.
According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, Nafeek defense is that the child died during bottle-feeding and that she tried to revive the child and called for help. (Accidental death is not a capital crime under Shariah.) Nafeek was found guilty of murder with no legal representation.
The court has assigned a deadline of Monday to file an appeal in the verdict. Lankan officials are currently seeking a one-month extension in order to get their paperwork in order.
Without legal representation or any assistance from the Sri Lankan Embassy, Nafeek — who was too young to be a guest worker in Saudi Arabia at the time she entered the Kingdom and barely 17 when she was assigned to take care of a newborn child — was found guilty of murder on June 16 by a three-member panel of Shariah judges.
Now Sri Lankan officials are trying to step in and pursue a clemency. Under Shariah law, the surviving family members can forgive a person found guilty of murder, sparing the condemned the death penalty. Accidental death is not a capital offense under Shariah law.
Bhaila will accompany Rizana’s parent, Mohammed and Farina, to make a humanitarian appeal to the victim’s father, Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi, who works in the Finance Ministry.
On June 16, a three-member bench of the Dawadmi High Court found Rizana guilty of murder of a four-month old infant in a Saudi home, 380 kms away from the capital.
“The decision to send the parents of the maid was taken at a special meeting held in Colombo yesterday under the chairmanship of Keheliya Rambukwela, minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare, which discussed all possible avenues to save Rizana from the sword,” D.B. Sumithrarachchi, working director of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) told Arab News by phone from Colombo. The bureau is responsible for the welfare of the island’s overseas workers.
The meeting held at the residence of the minister yesterday morning was also attended by Bhaila, senior officials from SLBFE and the Lankan Foreign Ministry.
Sumithrarachchi said he had already summoned the parents of the maid to Colombo to process their travel documents. “Since we are pressed for time, we want to send them as quickly as possible,” he said.
Speaking to Arab News from Colombo, Bhaila said Rizana comes from a poverty stricken family in the tsunami-affected area in the eastern part of the island. Rizana is the eldest of the parents’ four children. The family lives in a small thatched hut with a leaking roof. The father supports his family by selling firewood, made complicated by rebel activity in the nearby forest. Rizana went to Saudi Arabia to help generate income.
In her statement to the court, Rizana also claimed that at the time of her arrival in Saudi Arabia, she was 17 years old and that a recruitment agent had falsified her documents and obtained her passport by overstating her true age by six years.
Sri Lankan Expatriates Society President Vikum Rajapakse told Arab News that the society will do its best to save Rizana’s life by collecting funds to cover blood money, should the father take that option.
