No response for clemency yet - SLBFE

by Ananda Kannangara

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) yesterday said that no response has been received so far from the Saudi Arabian Government over the death penalty granted by the Riyad Supreme Court on Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek.President Mahinda Rajapaksa too had appealed from His Majesty the King Abdullah bin Abdul Azeez of Saudi Arabia seeking clemency for Rizana.

SLBFE, DGM, Mangala Randeniya told the Sunday Observer that the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry is also in touch with the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry over this matter.Rizana arrived in Riyadh on May 5, 2005 to work as a housemaid at the residence of Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi in Dawadami.

According to Rizana's passport, her date of birth is February 2, 1982, while her birth certificate indicates her actual date of birth as February 4, 1988.

Rizana was sentenced to death by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court over the death of an infant, while she was bottle-feeding the infant of AL-Otaibis.

According to the judgement court ordered her death sentence by beheading.