RIYADH: Nepalese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari, who is also accredited in Kuwait and four other countries in the region, has launched an international initiative to save a 29-year-old Nepali maid who has been sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti court for killing a Filipino colleague.
Ansari said that the Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh has already gathered SR78,000 in donations to the “Save Dolma Sherpa” campaign. The amount would be used to pay blood money and lawyer and other fees.
“We are now negotiating with the family of the woman allegedly murdered by Dolma to pay blood money to save her life,” he said, adding that the embassy has already paid the fees to retain a lawyer for the woman.
“There is a good chance for a final verdict from the appellate court within a few days,” he said. “There is happy news that the family of victim has more or less agreed to receive $10,000 in blood money as compensation.”
Dolma has been in jail in Kuwait for several months. She left her village two years ago to work as a maid in the Gulf country. At the time the Nepalese government had a ban on nationals working as domestic servants in the Gulf. Dolma is believed to have circumvented the ban by traveling through India or Bangladesh, like thousands of Nepali men and women do every year. She left her three-year-old son in the care of her sister. Dolma’s husband Ang Tenzi Sherpa too went to Iraq in a similar manner to work as a cook in an American military camp.
Tenzi had rushed back to Katmandu from Iraq to beseech the Nepalese government to save his wife. According to a report, Dolma allegedly killed a co-worker in a Kuwaiti home when their employer was away on Haj last year.
Dolma has not been able to put across her version of the incident in court. Since Nepal doesn’t have any mission in Kuwait, Ansari sent an official from Riyadh to meet the woman in jail and to expedite legal proceedings.
Nepalese organizations abroad have already been issuing appeals to the Kuwaiti government to commute her death sentence. Amnesty International too has issued an appeal.
