Saudi Arabia: Stop Execution of Domestic Worker

(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 today. 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 her care. A recruitment agency in Sri Lanka had altered the birth date 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.

Past Human Rights Watch interviews with embassy officials and reporting from Arab News have raised concerns about Nafeek's access to lawyers and competent translators during her interrogation and trial. Though she was arrested in 2005, she did not have access to legal counsel until after a court in Dawadmi sentenced her to death in 2007. Nafeek has also retracted a confession that she said was made under duress, and says that the baby died in a choking accident while drinking from a bottle.

With the Supreme Court's latest decision, judicial remedies have been exhausted, unless it can be shown that the courts falsely interpreted Islamic law in their rulings or new evidence comes to light. The king and interior minister must sign execution orders, however, and no one may be executed without such approval. A senior official in the Sri Lankan embassy told Human Rights Watch that it has requested a meeting with the Interior Ministry.

Under the concept of retaliation (qisas) governing murder cases in Saudi Arabia, the parents of the baby also may seek blood money in compensation or grant a pardon instead of opting to ask the state to execute Nafeek.

"The Saudi government should meet with the ‘Utaibi family, the Sri Lankan authorities, and other relevant parties to leave no stone unturned in efforts to overturn this death sentence," Varia said.

Saudi Arabia is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which expressly prohibits the death penalty or life sentences without parole for offenses committed before the accused turned 18. Nevertheless, Saudi law gives judges wide discretion to treat children as adults in criminal cases, and courts have imposed death sentences on children as young as 13.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and its finality. In 2009, Saudi Arabia executed more than 53 persons, including at least three individuals for crimes they allegedly committed as children.

Source: Human Rights Watch, October 26, 2010

Sri Lanka appeals to Saudi king to spare maid's life

Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Sri Lanka's president on Tuesday appealed to Saudi Arabia's king to grant clemency to a housemaid convicted of killing her employer's baby.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent the appeal to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, said Rajapaksa's media unit.

The move followed media reports that the Riyadh Supreme Court had endorsed the death sentence imposed on Rizana Nafeek for killing the 4-month-old boy in 2005.

She killed the child after she was asked to bottle-feed him, Saudi police said. Nafeek said the child died accidentally, choking on milk.

A three-judge panel of the Dawadami High Court found Nafeek guilty, and the death sentence was imposed in June 2007.

About 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad -- nearly 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia alone -- because of their limited earning potential at home.

Nafeek was 17 when she started working in Saudi Arabia, and was accused of killing the baby two weeks into her job.

She took the position to support her family after they were displaced by the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Source: CNN.com, October 28, 2010

Sri Lanka president to seek maid clemency

Rizana Nafeek's family await news of her case from Sri Lanka Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to appeal to the king of Saudi Arabia to revoke the death sentence on a Sri Lankan maid, officials say.

Rizana Nafeek was convicted 3 years ago of killing a baby in her care.

The Saudi Supreme Court recently rejected an appeal against the verdict by the maid's family.

Human rights groups say international law prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18 - which Nafeek was when the baby died.

Nafeek's parents travelled from a poor village in eastern Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia to seek a pardon from the baby's parents, but they refused to meet them.

A humanitarian worker who recently visited Nafeek said she was being treated properly in jail.

Nafeek had originally confessed to killing the 4-month-old Saudi boy in 2005 but later retracted her statement saying it had been made under duress.

Source: BBC News, October 27, 2010

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