The agents were found to have faked the original travel documents of Rizana Nafeek — a housemaid on death row in the Kingdom for killing the infant of her employer. The agents should each pay the amount to the parents of Nafeek, ruled Colombo High Court judge Sunil Rajapaksa on Monday.
The convicts — Shahul Hameed Mohamadu Abdul Latiff and Pakeer Mohideen Wajurdeen — pleaded guilty to finding employment for Nafeek as a housemaid in 2005 while she was under age.
The counsel for the first accused said that his client had assisted Nafeek to go overseas while he was unaware that she was underage.
The judge noted that he was imposing a lenient sentence due to the circumstances presented to the court. The punishment for the offense could have been 20 years rigorous imprisonment.
On Jan. 24 the case against the third accused, Kamsa Lebbe Abdul Salam, will be taken up.
Senior State Counsel Deleepa Pieris told the court that Nafeek was sent to Saudi Arabia on forged documents. She is presently on death row and her fate is solely dependent on the action the Sri Lankan government will take against the accused.
The prosecutor said the international community was closely watching the case.
A police team of the CID Human Traffic Unit followed up on a complaint made by Nafeek’s mother.
The attorney general indicted the suspects for helping to send Nafeek with the help of a forged birth certificate.
A Saudi court sentenced Nafeek to death in June 2007 for killing the baby in her care while her employers were not in the house. She maintains that the newborn choked during bottle-feeding and that she tried to seek help. On Sept. 25 last year the Supreme Court in Riyadh rejected a subsequent appeal by Nafeek.
Nafeek entered the Kingdom, aged 17, using documents allegedly forged by her recruiter to work as a maid. A family hired her for nanny duties.
According to Nafeek’s passport, her date of birth is Feb. 2, 1982, while the certified copy of her birth certificate indicates her actual date of birth as Feb. 4, 1988.
