Reduced term for woman sentenced to death by stoning

Deputy foreign minister Harsha de Silva (L) speaks as Minister of Foreign Employment Thalatha Athukorala looks on during a press conference in Colombo on 23 December. The Saudi Arabian court has commuted the death-by-stoning sentence passed on a Sri Lankan maid convicted of adultery, the government in Colombo said. AFP 

Appeal lodged by the Govt. commuted to three year jail term, full details to be revealed when court documents reach SL  

By Uditha Jayasinghe 

 The Appeal against the verdict of the Sri Lankan domestic worker arrested on charges of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning in Saudi Arabia has been commuted to a prison sentence, top government officials said yesterday. 

 The Government announced the appeal for clemency on the sentence was successful and the Sri Lankan national will now have to serve a reduced sentence of a term in prison.

“We have been informed it will be a jail term of about three years but full details will be known when court documents reach us next week,” Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva told reporters. 

 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Ministry of Foreign Employment and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment undertook the responsibility to safeguard the Sri Lankan national and through the Sri Lanka Mission in Saudi Arabia, extended every assistance to provide legal counsel and consular assistance in order to assist the appeal process, Minister Thalatha Athukorala noted at the joint press conference on Wednesday. 

“The Government of Sri Lanka wishes to acknowledge and appreciate the good offices of the Saudi Authorities.  The sympathy, the understanding and the concern expressed, and assistance extended by many other parties is also noted and deeply appreciated,” she added. 

Al Dwadmi Court in August convicted the 45-year-old married woman, who was working as a maid in Riyadh since 2013, of adultery after she confessed to having an illicit affair with an unmarried Sri Lankan man employed in Saudi Arabia. She was sentenced to death by stoning, while the man convicted alongside her was sentenced to 100 lashes.

The Foreign Employment Bureau had hired lawyers and filed an appeal before the Riyadh Court requesting it to reduce the punishment.

In 2013, Saudi Arabia executed Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek who was sentenced to death on the charge of murdering the son of her Saudi employer despite calls from all over the world to spare her life.

Migration plays a key role in the economic development of Sri Lanka. Foreign workers make up 24% of the labour force, and remittances form 33% of the country’s foreign exchange and 8.3% of its GDP. 

Sri Lanka already has over two million migrant workers, mostly working in Middle Eastern countries, with 52% of them being women. But ten Sri Lankans, among them two women, have been condemned to death in the Middle East and dozens more die or return maimed each year from their work.