Saudi Arabia: Halt Execution of Sri Lankan Migrant Worker

[Fire Walk With Me]

Source: Human Rights Watch

UPDATE: On January 9, 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker convicted of killing a baby in her care in 2005 when she was 17 years old.

Human Rights Watch strongly condemns the execution.

“Saudi Arabia is one of just three countries that executes people for crimes they committed as children,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Rizana Nafeek is yet another victim of the deep flaws in Saudi Arabia's judicial system.”

Nafeek had been working in Saudi Arabia for two weeks in 2005 when the ‘Utaibi family’s 4-month-old baby died in her care. Nafeek 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. Authorities have incarcerated Nafeek in Dawadmi prison since 2005.

Read more: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/08/saudi-arabia-halt-execution-sri-lankan-migrant-worker

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The update is from today, Jan. 9, announcing her beheading.

[polly7]

1. So sad to see.

I'd been following this, the poor girl was denied any type of support right from the start.

Rizana Nafeek was arrested in May 2005 on charges of murdering an infant in her care. She was 17 years old at the time. On 16 June 2007, she was sentenced to death by a court in Dawadmi, a town west of the capital Riyadh. The sentence was subsequently upheld by the Court of Cassation and sent for ratification by the Supreme Judicial Council. However, the Council sent it back to the lower court for further clarification. The case then went back and forth between the courts until on or around 25 October 2010, when the Supreme Court in Riyadh upheld the death sentence. The case was then sent to the King for ratification of the death sentence; if the King does ratify the death sentence, Rizana Nafeek will be at imminent risk of execution by beheading.

Rizana Nafeek had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or at her first trial. She initially“confessed” to the murder during interrogation but has since retracted her confession, which she says she was forced to make under duress following a physical assault. The man who translated Rizana’s statement was not an officially recognized translator and it appears that he may not have been able adequately to translate between Tamil and Arabic. He has since left Saudi Arabia. Rizana Nafeek arrived in Saudi Arabia in May 2005 to work as a housemaid. She was sent by her parents after the family lost all possessions and became refugees due the Tsunami in 2004.

She went to work at the house of Mr. Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al Otaibi whose wife had a new-born baby boy. A short time after she started working for this family she was assigned to bottle feed the infant who was by then four months old. Rizana Nafeek had no experience of any sort in caring for such a young infant. She was left alone when bottle feeding the child.While she was feeding the child the boy started choking, as so often happens to babies and Rizana Nafeek panicked and while shouting for help tried to sooth the child by feeling the chest, neck and face, doing whatever she could to help him. At her shouting the mother arrived but by that time the baby was either unconscious or dead. Unfortunately, misunderstanding the situation the family members treated the teenager very harshly and handed her over to the police, accusing her of strangling the baby.

At the police station also, she was very harshly handled and did not have the help of a translator or anyone else to whom she could explain what had happened. After physical assault she was made to sign a confession and later charges were filed in court of murder by strangulation.

http://www.rizananafeek.com/

[McCamy Taylor]

2. I don't think the Saudis care whether she was guilty or not. She was a scapegoat.

[Piazza Riforma]

3. What's truly sad is the people

who will rage about this execution calling it "barbaric" and "inhumane", but refuse to support abolition of capital punishment here in the US.

[limpyhobbler]

4. I just heard about this on the internet.

I was going to make a thread but did a search first to see if there already was one.

This is pretty messed up.