Medieval Murder in Modern Times: Woman Faces Death by Beheading in Saudi Arabia for Crime She 'Committed as a Child’
MAIL ON SUNDAY: A young maid is facing death by beheading in Saudi Arabia for a crime she claims she did not commit.

Rizana Nafeek, who alleges she was a teenager at the time of the incident, was arrested in May 2005 on charges of murdering a four-month-old baby who was in her care.

She denies murder and claims she desperately tried to save the child who choked while she was looking after it.

Saudi Arabia have come under fire from Human Rights groups for the handling of her case after it was revealed there had been a mix-up involving the year she was born in.

The authorities have her date of birth as 1982 however her birth certificate states she was born in 1988 - making her 17 at the time of the alleged incident.

If Saudi Arabia went ahead with the execution it would be in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it has ratified.

Human Rights groups claim Rizana had no legal representation before or during her trial.

Sri-Lankan born Nafeek's mother Rafeena said her daughter moved to the country so that she could send money home to help educate her three siblings.

Desperate for work she found a job as a domestic worker but was shocked when she was asked to look after a baby, Naif al-Quthaibi, because she believed she did not have the skills to care for him.

Just weeks into her employment tragedy struck and the infant choked while he was being fed.

Rafeena, who lives in a tiny village, has previously begged King Abdullah to pardon her daughter and asked him to allow her to return home.

If the execution goes ahead the now 23-year-old will dressed in a white robe and be marched into a packed town centre.

She will also be blindfolded, shackled and forced to kneel facing Mecca before she is prodded between the shoulders so her head is raised naturally.

Rizana will then be executed, medieval style, with one sweep of a sharply-bladed sword. Read on and comment » | Daily Mail Reporter | Sunday, June 26, 2011

Rizana Nafeek’s Parents to Fly to Saudi Arabia in Last Minute Plea for Clemency
KUWAIT TIMES: COLOMBO: The parents of a Sri Lankan maid sentenced to be beheaded in Saudi Arabia after a baby died in her care will travel to the kingdom later this week to plea for clemency to the boy's parents, a Sri Lankan official said yesterday. A Saudi court sentenced Rizana Nafeek, 19, to death last month and gave her until yesterday to appeal the sentence. Human rights activists have said the boy's death appeared to be an accident.

The Sri Lankan Embassy has already filed an appeal on Nafeek's behalf, said Hussein Bhaila, Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister, but was also hoping that a delegation that includes Nafeek's parents would help save her from execution. The group, which is to include Bhaila and other officials as well, was to leave yesterday, but had not received visas. Bhaila met the Saudi Arabian ambassador yesterday afternoon and was told there will be "no problem" getting the visas in time for their trip, which was rescheduled for Friday, he said. "We intend to meet religious leaders and higher officials and persuade the (boy's) parents to grant clemency to Nafeek," Bhaila said. Parents of death row maid to plea for teen (more)

Mark Alexander

Rizana Nafeek
I would like to urge all my visitors to do something to try and help this poor Sri Lankan girl whose execution in Saudi Arabia by beheading is imminent. I have chosen to write to the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, for I believe that he is a caring man. This is my email to him at the Élysée Palace today:

URGENT

Mr President:

You will no doubt be fully aware of the case of Rizana Nafeek, a poor Sri Lankan maid/babysitter, who has been tried in Saudi Arabia for allegedly stangling a four-month-old baby boy whilst feeding him.

This is a pathetic case, and certainly an injustice, since she was not afforded a lawyer to represent her at the trial; and her confession is said to have been forced out of her. Her execution by beheading is imminent. The girl is merely nineteen years old, and is said to have gone to Saudi Arabia to work to help feed her poor family back home in Sri Lanka.

I write to you today for I know you to be a man who cares about such matters. I therefore hope that there might be something you can do, as the President of France, to put a stop to this injustice. This poor maid will surely have few people to stand up for her. Your help could be invaluable.

I realise that this is not a French matter, and I realise, too, that you are an exceedingly busy man. But if there is something you can do to help this girl, it would be greatly appreciated.

For your time and assistance in this most urgent and pathetic matter, I thank you most kindly.

Faithfully

Mark Alexander
Author

Librabunda

Barbaric Practices

Somebody Do Something to Help

If you feel that you would like to write to your own president or prime minister, please feel free to copy my email.

Mark Alexander

Somebody Do Something to Save This Poor Sri Lankan Teenage Babysitter from Beheading!
It high time for the Saudis to come into the civilized world! It is also high time that the Western world shun Saudi Arabia until they do so, regardless of the cost. Some things are more important than money, profit, or oil!


You can sign a petition here: SAVE RIZANA

Mark Alexander

Barbaric Practices of 'Our Friends and Allies': Saudi Arabia to Behead Teenage Maid

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital punishment.
The case has brought fresh attention to the draconian Saudi criminal justice system which is expected this year to set a new record in its use of the death sentence.

Human rights campaigners yesterday urged the authorities not to behead a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid found guilty of killing a baby in her care. 

According to the Saudi authorities, Rizana Nafeek admitted strangling the four-month-old boy while feeding him with a bottle. 

But Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway.

Tonight is the deadline for appeals in the case. Unless the Saudi authorities change the sentence or the parents of the victim offer clemency, Nafeek will have her head cut off by an executioner wielding a sword in front of a crowd of onlookers. Saudis prepare to behead teenage maid (more) By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent

Mark Alexander