A sword-wielding executioner carried out the death sentence on Rizana Nafeek in the town of Dawadmy, near Riyadh, just hours after the country's Interior Ministry ratified the court verdict against her.
Nafeek was given the death sentence in 2007 for smothering the infant while working as the child's nanny. She had been accused of killing the four-month-old boy two years earlier following an argument with his mother.
Nafeek however, who was aged only 17 at the time of the alleged offence, insisted that the child had choked to death on milk during a bottle field [sic].
The Sri Lankan government appealed against the death penalty but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in 2010. Despite an international campaign for clemency, that verdict was finally ratified by the country's Interior Ministry yesterday.
The announcement the execution had taken place shocked Nafeek's supporters who had expected the government of Sri Lanka to enter into negotiations to pay blood money for clemency. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Wednesday, January 19, 2013
