RIYADH, 13 March 2008 — Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila arrived in Saudi Arabia yesterday to lobby on behalf of a Sri Lankan maid who was sentenced to beheading for the death of an infant in her care.
“I came here to make a personal appeal to seek clemency from the parents of the infant who died in the hands of the teenaged maid,” Bhaila told Arab News on arrival at the King Khaled International Airport.
Rizana Nafeek, 20, was sentenced to beheading for the death of a four-month-old infant boy on May 22, 2005, in Dawadami, about 390 km west of Riyadh. Last week the case was passed to the Cassation Court in Riyadh.
Bhaila said that he came to the Kingdom on a request made by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, who has taken a personal interest in Nafeek’s case. Bhaila added that the Sri Lankan government respects the decisions of the Kingdom’s judiciary.
The father of the baby, Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi, 32, who works for the Finance Ministry in Riyadh, and his wife accuse Nafeek of murdering their child.
Rizana claims the baby accidentally choked to death during a bottle-feeding session, and says a confession she allegedly made was signed under duress without the help of translators. Later, Rizana’s side of the story came to light after the Sri Lankan Embassy provided translators and interviewed her in prison.
“We understand the feelings of the bereaved family, which had lost an infant,” Bhaila said yesterday. “Our deepest sympathies go to them for what had happened. We know how tragic and unbearable it is for the parents,” he noted while still urging the family to pardon Nafeek, who comes from impoverished circumstances in Sri Lanka, to earn Allah’s grace.
“Her father is only a woodcutter who lives hand-to-mouth and has to support his wife and two other children with his meager income,” said Bhaila. “Rizana came in search of greener pastures and got caught up in this case.”
On June 16, 2007, a three-member panel of judges in the Dawadami High Court sentenced Rizana to beheading. Nafeek’s legal representation, which is being funded by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission and private donations by Sri Lankans, appealed the verdict.
Nafeek says she was 17 years old when she came to the Kingdom on May 4, 2005, on a passport that was falsified by her recruiter to alter her year of birth to 1982. Her birth certificate states she was born in 1988.
Saudi Arabia voluntarily signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits putting to death people who committed crimes as minors. A minor is defined in the charter as someone under the age of 18.
