President Rajapakasa to appeal Saudi King 
[October 26 2010]


<P>President Mahinda Rajapaksa will soon send a request to the King of
Saudi Arabia for an amnesty for Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek who has
been sentenced to death for killing a Saudi infant in 2005.

<P>The External Affairs Ministry said the request was now being processed.

<P>A three-member panel of judges from the Dawadami High Court found
Rizana Nafeek guilty of murdering the four-month-old infant while
bottle feeding in 2005.

<P>The government has taken up the matter of the Rizana Nafeek to a
diplomatic level after the Supreme Court in Riyadh endorsed the death
sentence given to the teenage maid.