JEDDAH, 9 July 2007 — Time is clearly running out to file an appeal in the case of Rizana Nazik, the 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid who — without legal representation — was found guilty by a Saudi court for the strangulation death of a four-month-old Saudi boy in May 2005.
The government of Sri Lanka must clearly state its position regarding providing legal assistance to Nazik who is facing death penalty, said Basil Fernando, the executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission who has been working on the domestic worker’s behalf.
The government is fully aware that there is little time left for filing an appeal and that this will require retaining Saudi legal advisers, said Fernando, who also mentioned that the Sri Lankan Embassy in the Kingdom has already requested funds from the Sri Lankan government for the appeal.
The government is still to make a clear decision. He also said that a letter was sent to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the matter.
According to a statement issued earlier by the AHRC, Nazik was born on Feb. 4, 1988, and came from a war-torn impoverished Sri Lankan village, where it is commonly the practice of families to send their under-aged children abroad to become the breadwinners of the family.
The employment agency in Sri Lanka allegedly obtained an altered passport registered with the birth date of Feb. 2, 1982. Using this forged document, Nazik was able to become a legal domestic worker in Saudi Arabia.
At 17, Nazik was assigned employment at the home of Naïf Jiziyan Otaibi, a Saudi government employee in Riyadh whose wife had just given birth to a newborn baby boy. A short time after beginning work she was assigned the duty of bottle-feeding the infant who was by this time four months old. Nazik had no such experience in caring for infants.
According to the AHRC, Nazik says the death was accidental. She says she was left alone while feeding the child, who began to choke. Nazik said she panicked and began shouting for help while rubbing the baby’s chest, neck and face. But by the time the mother arrived the baby was already dead.
Nazik was then held by the family and turned over to the police. In custody she was allegedly provided no translator, was asked to sign a statement and was charged with murder by strangulation.
Later when given a translator and allowed to explain her plight to the Sri Lankan Embassy a different version of the incident emerged, which was also filed with the Saudi court.
Upon hearing the case, the judge urged Otaibi, the child’s father, to use his prerogative to pardon the maid, which he refused to do. Therefore, the Shariah court sentenced her to death by beheading and gave her a period of one month to lodge an appeal, which has been left up to the Sri Lankan government to file.
According to further information from AHRC, Sri Lankan authorities are asking for to defend the case, which has yet to be raised.
Subsequently, the AHRC has been contacted by parties who have come forward to offer assistance if the government is not willing to take responsibility. However, Fernando said access to the defendant could only be made through the Sri Lankan Embassy or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh. He added that the Sri Lankan government must move forward quickly on a decision.
Several attempts by Arab News to contact the proper authorities with knowledge of the case in both the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh and the Sri Lankan Consulate General in Jeddah were unanswered.
“In my legal opinion, the maid is still liable for the death of the child,” said a Jeddah-based lawyer. “According to the Saudi Labor Law, domestic workers brought into the Kingdom to perform certain duties should have those duties clearly stated,” he said.
“For example, if she is to be employed as a housemaid her sole duty is to clean, but if she is recruited to care for children, the domestic worker should be certified and trained in child care and brought in as a baby-sitter or child care professional and as not as a housemaid. But as is the case of Nazik it is the Shariah law not Saudi Labor Law that has been enforced and this can only be implemented after substantial investigation, filing of medical documents and certificates and if all of this has been done and brought before the judge it is up to him to pass a suitable sentence.”
So far human rights groups, such as the AHRC and Amnesty International-UK, have been urgently asking people from all over the world to file petitions with the child’s father and Custodian off the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to pardon Nazik, but at present an overturning of the court’s decision has yet to be seen.
