Rizana should be pardon - HRW [October 27 2010]

(New York) - King Abdullah and Interior Minister Prince Naif should halt the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker convicted of killing a child in her care when she was 17, Human Rights Watch said.

Saudi Arabia is one of only three countries worldwide known to have executed individuals in the past two years for crimes committed when they were children.

Rizana Nafeek had been in Saudi Arabia for two weeks in May 2005, working for the ‘Utaibi family, when their 4-month-old baby died in on her passport to suggest she was 23 so she could migrate for work, but her birth certificate later confirmed she was 17 at the time.

“There is no dispute that the events happened when Nafeek was a child,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government should not compound one tragedy with another. It’s time for Saudi Arabia to end its outlier status as one of the very few countries still executing people for crimes they are accused of committing as children.”

An official with the Sri Lankan embassy told Human Rights Watch that diplomats learned last week that Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court had upheld Nafeek’s conviction and sentence. A social worker who visited Nafeek in prison on October 24, 2010, told Human Rights Watch that Nafeek is still unaware of the latest Supreme Court decision and is anxious to return home.