"Through our intervention, they (Saudi Arabia) have agreed to reopen
the case. This can be considered a big victory. We will provide her
with legal counsel and bear all the costs for legal counsel," de Silva
told parliament.
Saudi to consider appeal against stoning of maid-Sri Lanka foreign ministry(Reuters)
Saudi authorities have agreed to consider an appeal against the sentence of death by stoning imposed on a 45-year-old Sri Lankan maid for adultery, Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday, welcoming the decision as a "big victory".
The married woman, who had been working as a domestic helper in Riyadh
since 2013, was convicted by a Saudi court in August. Her partner, also
a Sri Lankan migrant worker, was given a lesser punishment of 100
lashes because he was single.
Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva
said Colombo had appealed to Riyadh's central appeal court, which had
agreed to send the case back to the provincial court to reconsider the
sentence.
"Through our intervention, they
(Saudi Arabia) have agreed to reopen the case. This can be considered a
big victory. We will provide her with legal counsel and bear all the
costs for legal counsel," de Silva told parliament.
Officials
from the Saudi embassy in Colombo were not immediately available to
confirm that the sentence was being reconsidered. No date has been
announced for the stoning.
Oil-producing Saudi
Arabia follows sharia, Islamic law, and is often criticised by human
rights groups for the wide range of crimes which carry the death
penalty, including adultery, drug smuggling and witchcraft.
Saudi Arabia - currently chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council
- has executed more than 150 people this year, mostly by public
beheading, the largest number of executions in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said last month.
In
2013, Riyadh beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for killing an
infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by the Indian Ocean
island against her death sentence.
The beheading
prompted United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to express concern
over the lack of justice for women in Saudi Arabia, and Colombo
recalled its envoy from Riyadh in protest.
The
current case has generated national debate and sparked protests in Sri
Lanka, home to hundreds of thousands of men and women who migrate to the
Middle East every year to take up jobs as maids or drivers.
Foreign
Minister Mangala Samaraweera held an urgent meeting with Saudi
diplomats last week to seek clemency for the woman as scores of Buddhist
monks protested outside, calling for her to be freed.
Deputy
Energy Minister Ajith P. Perera and other politicians have called on
Colombo to stop women going to work in Saudi Arabia if the stoning goes
ahead.
"I ask the government to ban sending house maids to Saudi Arabia if the stoning continued despite requests from the government," Perera said in parliament on Friday.
According
to Central Bank data, 279,952 Sri Lankans went to work in Middle
Eastern nations in 2014, generating over $7 billion in remittances,
around 9 percent of GDP.
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