Rizana Nafeek – News Column

Rizana Nafeek's letter from Al Dawami Prison – Dailynews.lk

On right is a photocopy of the letter written by Rizana Nafeek from Al Dawami Prison in Dawami on January 10, 2007.

In this letter she says this is the second statement she is making after she was arrested on murder charges.

She said she is 19 years and her date of birth is February 2, 1988. However the sub agent changed her date of birth fraudulently as 2nd February 1982 for the passport obtained her. She says she reached Saudi Arabia on 1st April 2005. I had worked in this residence for one and half months. I didn't have much problem here I had to cook, wash pots and pans and look after the four month baby. There were two other children boy and girl age four and three years. She finally says please save my life.

This letter was given to us by Abdul Cader Mashoor Moulana, Coordinating Secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Middle East affairs.

Moulana returned from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. After meeting the religious leaders on the final mission to save her life. Moulana said that he met Risana a few days before she was executed.

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Saudi Ambassador recalled – In a show of displeasure against the execution of Rizana Nafeek, Sri Lanka today recalled its Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahamed Javad, with immediate effect, External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunarathne Amunugama said – dailymirror.lk

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UK ALSO CONDEMNS ‘CRUEL AND INHUMAN’ RIZANA BEHEADING

 

Britain has condemned Saudi Arabia’s beheading of a young Sri Lankan maid as “cruel and inhuman”. The Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, spoke out as shock and outrage over the execution escalated, with Sri Lanka withdrawing its envoy from the Gulf State.

 

The Saudi government announced on Wednesday that it had carried out the beheading of Rizana Nafeek after finding her guilty of the murder of a baby in her care.

 

She had been accused of smothering the youngster after an argument with the child’s mother but always denied the charge.

 

The Gulf State went ahead with her execution even though it emerged later that she had been only 17 at the time.

 

Imposing capital punishment on a minor is widely viewed as being a breach of international children’s rights codes.

 

In a statement Mr Burt said: “I condemn the execution of Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia yesterday, despite the many appeals for her sentence to be commuted.

 

“The UK opposes all use of the death penalty as a matter of principle, whatever the crime committed.

 

“We also find the practice of beheading to be particularly cruel and inhuman. We continue to raise our concerns about human rights with the Saudi authorities, including its frequent use of the death penalty.”

 

The European Union also expressed dismay. Baroness Catherine Ashton, EU foreign affairs head, said: “I am deeply dismayed by the information that Sri Lankan national Ms Rizana Nafeek was executed.”

 

“The EU opposes the use of capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances,” she added.                

 

Rizana Nafeek was accused of killing the four-month-old in 2005 and was put on death row after her trial in 2007.

 

The Saudis went ahead with the execution in the town of Dawadmy, near the capital Riyadh, despite global appeals to call it off.

 

Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa made a series of personal appeals to try to stop the execution and grant a pardon to the maid.

 

Afterwards the president issued a statement saying he and his government “deplored” the action.

 

Sri Lanka has now recalled its envoy to Saudi Arabia in protest.

 

Karunatilake Amunugama, secretary of Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry, said: “(This is) to show our displeasure for not hearing the government’s appeal to save Rizana Nafeek. He (the envoy) has been recalled with immediate effect.”

 

Saudi households are highly dependent on housemaids from African and South Asian countries. There have been reported cases of domestic abuse in which families mistreat their maids, who have then attacked the children of their employers.

 

Amnesty International, in a statement before the execution, said that it appeared Nafeek had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or at her trial in 2007, Eagle Radio reports.

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Rizana's body buried in Saudi – Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry confirmed that the body of  Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek who was executed on Wenedsday was buried in Saudi Arabia, Ministry's Spokesman Sarath Dissanayaka said the Sri Lankan Governement however had requested the body of the Nafeek from the Saudi Government.

But the Saudi government had informed that the body had been buried according to prevailing laws. (Rifthi Ali)

 

Executing Rizana Nafeek is Sheer Saudi barbarism; Absolutely nothing to do with Islam and Shariah By Latheef Farook