Special delegation to seek clemency for Rizana

On an initiative by Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, the Government plans to send a special delegation to seek clemency for Rizana Nafeek, the housemaid who was sentenced to death by a high court in Saudi Arabia for the murder of a four-month-old infant in her care.

A three-member bench at the Dawadmi High Court, some 380 km from the capital, sentenced Nafeek for killing the baby she was entrusted to look after in the absence of her Saudi employers at home. She maintains that the newborn choked during bottle feeding and that she tried to seek help.

Nafeek entered the Kingdom as a minor (aged 17) to work as a maid on documents forged by her recruiter to work as a maid. She was then assigned nanny duties by the family.

Hakeem said he discussed Nafeek's issue with the Saudi delegation, which attended the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) that concluded in Colombo on Friday.

The minister sought the release of Nafeek on humanitarian grounds considering the poor circumstances of her family. However, Mansoor Al-Ghaffari, leader of the Saudi delegation at the AALCO meeting and adviser to the Minister of Justice, and Farook Wazir Ali, charge de'affaires of the Saudi Embassy in Colombo, said the Shariah is supreme. In cases deemed to be homicide, the State cannot intervene on the private rights of the next of kin.

Arab News