Death row convict Lankan maid deported after jail term

RIYADH: A Sri Lankan woman, who received the death sentence after being convicted of adultery in Saudi Arabia, has been deported home on completion of her jail term in Dawadmi, some 400 km from the capital of Riyadh.
Confirming the release and her subsequent deportation, Sri Lankan Embassy sources here said the maid was originally sentenced to death for adultery, but later the sentence was reduced to three years in jail by a Court of Appeals in Dawadmi.
The married woman, in her 40s, was working as a maid in a Saudi household before she was sentenced to death in August after being found guilty of having an illicit affair with a Sri Lankan bachelor. Her paramour, who was convicted alongside her, was sentenced to 100 lashes.
As a result of the Sri Lanka government’s intervention, pleading sympathetic consideration in the case, the Saudi government commuted the death sentence and imposed a jail term of three years.
“At the time she was imprisoned, she had already spent one-and-a-half years in jail. Therefore, she had to serve another one-and-a-half years. Her term of imprisonment ended in June this year. We will make all arrangements to bring her back to the country after the completion of her sentence,” SLBFE spokesman Upul Deshapriya told Arab News from Colombo.
Deshapriya said the appeal was made by Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorala. On instructions from the minister, the Colombo government, through its embassy in Riyadh, lodged its appeal to save the maid from her death sentence by hiring a lawyer.
The official said the Riyadh mission had been looking after the interests of the two accused in accordance with directives of the Ministries of External Affairs and Foreign Employment in Colombo.
Earlier, Foreign Employment Minister Athukorale told the island’s expatriate community of overseas workers that the government will not accept any responsibility for those who leave for foreign employment without prior registration with SLBFE as of this year.
“President Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto incorporates a program for protecting migrant workers and their families, which is known as Shramika Surakuma.”
Accordingly, “all migrant workers should be registered with their nearest divisional secretariat to obtain benefits from this scheme. But only 96,000 migrant workers, out of 1.7 million, have registered with the government authorities so far,” the minister said.
It is a statutory requirement that all Sri Lankan foreign workers should register themselves with the SLBFE, which in turn will look after the workers’ interests in the Kingdom. SLBFE repatriates the bodies of deceased workers, looks after the family of women who work abroad, and assists workers in case of a dispute with their respective sponsors.
“We have succeeded in getting the death sentence overturned. Our concern was to make sure that the original sentence was not carried out,” said Harsha de Silva, deputy foreign minister.
“The government of Sri Lanka wishes to acknowledge and appreciate the good offices of the Saudi authorities.