RIYADH: The body of a Sri Lankan housemaid found dead in the desert 10 months ago was finally repatriated to Colombo on Saturday night.
“The body of Ihalagedarage Dayawathie, 28, was found by the police in the desert in Al-Jouf on Oct. 21 last year,” a Sri Lankan Embassy official told Arab News. The body had decomposed.
The official said the authorities subsequently arrested the maid’s sponsor, Hamdan Ruwaishid, and his wife, Maryam bint Sadook, for the murder. He added that the Sri Lankan mission only received information about the death in early February and that the repatriation of the body was delayed as the mission had to wait for police to complete their investigations.
“The motive of the killing is still yet unknown. However, the police released the body as soon as the preliminary investigations were over and after establishing a prima facie case against the alleged killers,” he said.
The mission is to take a power of attorney from the deceased maid’s next-of-kin to proceed with a case of litigation.
Dayawathie — who is from Panselwatte, a village in Dodangaslande some 150 km from Colombo — came to the Kingdom in March 2005. Her family had not heard any news from her six months after her arrival in the Kingdom. On receiving Dayawathie’s body yesterday, police at Colombo Airport said the job agency which provided her with the job had contacted her family and informed them that she had died last year and that the Saudi police were investigating the death.
