RIYADH: The Sri Lankan woman whose death sentence for adultery was commuted by the government last December, will return to her country in the middle of next year on completion of her term of imprisonment, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) announced in Colombo this week.

The death sentence imposed on a Sri Lankan domestic for adultery was reduced to three years by a Court of Appeal in Al-Dawadmi in December.

The 45-year-old married woman with two children, who was working as a maid in the Kingdom, 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 has to serve another one-and-a-half years. Her term of imprisonment ends in June next 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 by hiring a lawyer to save the maid from her death sentence.

The official said the Riyadh mission has been looking after the interests of the two accused in accordance with directives of the Ministries of External Affairs and Foreign Employment in Colombo.

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 at 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 bodies of workers, looks after the family of women who work abroad, and assists workers in case of a dispute with their respective sponsors.