JEDDAH, 19 July 2007 — In light of the recently filed appeal in the case of Rizana Nafeek, the 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid found guilty by a Dawadami High Court of the strangulation death of a four-month-old Saudi boy last month, the Sri Lankan ambassador is appealing to the media to be cautious in its coverage. This is due, he says, to concerns that the coverage could influence decisions made during the course of negotiations between the two sides in the case.

“The disclosure of certain details as well as mischievous reporting on a global perspective could have serious repercussions on Nafeek’s case,” A.M.J. Sadiq, the Sri Lankan ambassador, told Arab News without elaborating.

“Now that the imminent danger to Rizana’s life has passed and the matter is before the courts for judicial consideration, we would like to ask for every effort to avoid any further public discussion of the case, lest it be construed as contempt of court which could be prejudicial to Rizana’s case,” said Ambassador Sadiq. “The reports of blood money, as well as the publicizing of plans made by ministers and foreign delegates to come to the Kingdom for the purpose of visiting the family of the deceased infant to ask for pardon only confuses and complicates the already-sensitive matter.”

The ambassador stated that the embassy reiterates its earlier position despite previous reports that they have for the past two years been unreceptive to the rights and needs of Nafeek.

“The embassy has closely followed all relevant developments regarding the case since becoming aware of the tragic incident in May 2005,” he said. “It is due to our provision of the necessary consular assistance to Rizana from the outset and our vigilant monitoring of the case that has made the timely filing of the judicial appeal against the death sentence possible.”

He concluded by issuing a public denial of earlier reports that the embassy has assigned Muhammad Niyas to look after the interests of the case and as a representative of the Sri Lankan government.

L.K. Ruhunage, deputy general manager of foreign relations at the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) in Colombo, told Arab News by phone that no impact has been recorded in the number of daily employment recruitments to the Kingdom associated with global media reports of the Nafeek case.

“The fact of the matter is that our countrymen need employment and the Middle East is responsible, and has been for many years, for being the main employers of Sri Lankan labor,” he said.

Latest statistics published by the SLBFE show that remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad is the second-largest revenue source for the small island nation’s economy. Workers abroad grew by 7.6 percent in 2005, to 230,963, of which 136,998 were female housemaids.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Lebanon continued to be the major labor receiving countries, capturing 85 percent of the total Sri Lankan overseas-worker labor market with total departures of foreign recruitments to the region reaching 633 per day.

In recent years, several restrictions have been made in efforts of improving the working environment of both the Sri Lankan domestic worker and Saudi sponsor, which include a total ban that took place three months ago on employing women with children less than five years of age. With plans on the drawing board of restricting women less than 25 years of age from being employed in the Kingdom.

“This restriction would have greatly benefited the now-devastating situation of both Rizana Nafeek, who was allegedly only 17 years old at the time she was permitted entrance into the Kingdom (on a forged passport obtained by the recruiter in Sri Lanka claiming she was 23) not to mention the unnecessary loss of the family of Naif Al-Otaibi, the father of the deceased infant,” Ruhunage added.