JEDDAH, 13 July 2007 — 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 SR50,000 to begin the appeals process.
The AHRC is a nongovernmental human rights organization that has been working on behalf of the young woman. The deposit was made yesterday to the firm of Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, Attorneys at Law, in Riyadh.
“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 Fernandez, 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.
Fernandez also told Arab News that this was only the first of three SR50,000 payments to be made.
The AHRC chief also condemned the Sri Lankan government for not exercising a more active role in defending the rights of its citizen in obtaining a fair trial.
“Although this action was taken by the AHRC in order to prevent the desperate situation that might arise in the event of the nonfiling of the appeal, the failure of the Sri Lankan government to live up to its obligations toward the basic protection of its migrant workers in the Middle East and elsewhere needs to be questioned. The government should be pressurized into changing its policy relating to such protection,” Fernandez said.
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 kilometers 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.”
He added, “At this point, the Sri Lankan Embassy is making every effort to save Nafeek’s life, which is our primary goal. These types of counterproductive falsifications and mischievous reporting is making our role much more difficult.”
Nafeek’s story has been making global headlines pulling at the heartstrings of millions, many of whom have become concerned and wish to assist in the case. The AHRC recently received a request from a Sri Lankan employee in Dubai willing to offer his entire salary in efforts to raise the fees needed to file an appeal for Nafeek.
Many others have also been sending petitions to the family of the deceased child as well as to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to pardon Nafeek on compassionate grounds.
The recent deposit of necessary legal expenses by the AHRC was done so following the receipt of a letter from Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq, which stated that the Foreign Ministry in Colombo had “no objection to the AHRC undertaking legal expenses to file the judicial appeal on behalf of the Sri Lankan national Rizana Nafeek.”
The ministry further added that they had instructed the embassy to facilitate the endeavor. Information about whether the actual filing of the appeal has been completed is still pending.
