Al Jazeera Speaks to Family of Executed Sri Lankan Maid
Al Jazeera has spoken to the family of the Sri Lankan maid beheaded last week in Saudi Arabia for killing an infant. Her family continues to say that she was only 17 and not capable of hurting anyone. The Saudi government has condemned world reaction to the beheading, saying the maid had plotted and killed the infant by suffocation. Minelle Fernandez reports.

Saudi Arabia Rejects Maid Beheading Criticism
AL JAZEERA: Saudi Arabia 'deplores' international condemnation over beheading of a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing baby.

Saudi Arabia criticised world reaction to its beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing her employer's baby, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.

Riyadh "deplores the statements made... over the execution of a Sri Lankan maid who had plotted and killed an infant by suffocating him to death, one week after she arrived in the kingdom," the government spokesman said.

Rizana Nafeek was beheaded on Wednesday in a case that sparked widespread international condemnation, including from rights groups which said she was just 17 when she was charged with murdering the baby in 2005.

Nafeek was found guilty of smothering the infant after an argument with the child's mother.

The case soured diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka which on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia in protest.

The government spokesman condemned what he called "wrong information on the case," and denied that the maid was a minor when she committed the crime. » | Source: Agencies | Monday, January 14, 2013

Tribal Savagery! Saudi Arabia Defies International Protests with Beheading of Sri Lankan Maid

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia defied international protests yesterday by beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of smothering an infant child, despite her being aged just 17 at the time of the offence.

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

Maid Not Paid by Employer for 15 Years
EMIRATES 24|7: A Sri Lankan housemaid in Saudi Arabia had thought she would return home with a fortune when she told her employer to pay her only when she decides to leave the Gulf Kingdom. When it was time for the return after 15 years, she realized her grave mistake as her employer simply vanished.

Just before Kosoma Tandani was about to leave, her Saudi employer took her to the government-run Housemaid Service Centre in Riyadh and dumped her there.

He then disappeared, triggering a police manhunt for him. » | Staff | Monday, March 26, 2012

Barbarism Alert *! Sri Lankan Woman 'Had Nails Embedded in Body by Saudi Employers’
THE TELEGRAPH: A Sri Lankan housemaid has returned home from Saudi Arabia with 24 nails embedded in her body after allegedly being tortured by her employer, according to officials.

L.T. Ariyawathi, 49, alleged that her Saudi employer had tortured her and drove nails into her body as punishment. Photo: The Telegraph
A government minister said police were investigating a complaint from LT Ariyawathi, 49, that her Saudi employer tortured her and drove nails into her body as punishment.

“We are conducting an investigation and we will coordinate with Saudi authorities to have the suspects arrested,” Economic Development Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told reporters.

The woman travelled to Saudi Arabia in March and returned home last week, complaining of abuse by her employer. >>> | Wednesday, August 25, 2010

* This is what they call the religion of love and peace, oh, and compassion, of course! Fie on these barbarians! – Mark

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