Sri Lanka Muslim Council appeals to Saudi King to pardon maid sentenced to death by stoning

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has appealed to the King of Saudi Arabia to pardon the two Sri Lankan migrant workers who were convicted for adultery.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) in a letter wrote to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia that the Council is “deeply grieved” and urged him to pardon the Sri Lankan female domestic worker sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and the other respondent, a male migrant worker who is to receive 100 lashes.

The 45 year old woman, a mother of three, was to be stoned to death in Riyadh on Friday but the sentence was not carried out because the Sri Lankan government had appealed against the order on behalf of the defendant.

The Council said it presumes that the housemaid unfortunately sentenced to death by stoning and the male worker who would face lashing were unaware of the law and cultural practices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Their illiteracy in this respect is solely due to their underprivileged and marginalized socio-economic background at their home country, Sri Lanka, which denied them even the minimum level of education required to be aware of complexities in a legal and cultural system that is inherently foreign to them,” the Council wrote.

The Council said while they respects the law of Saudi Arabia and the decision made by the Saudi Arabian judiciary, they believe that on extremely humanitarian grounds the two convicted individuals from Sri Lanka deserve King’s pardon.

Explaining the abject poverty and conditions that drove the Sri Lankan maid to seek employment in the Kingdom and to the current plight, the Council asked the King to pardon her on humanitarian grounds as her situation needs humanitarian interpretation rather than a legal one.

The Council said the kind intervention in pardoning these unfortunate victims would enhance the high esteem in which Sri Lankans hold Islam, the people and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who met the Saudi envoy to Colombo last week and asked to speak to his Saudi counterpart Adel Al Jubeir on the maid’s plight, is still awaiting a response for a discussion.

Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Thalatha Athukorala speaking in Parliament today said several parties including Foreign Minister intervened into the issue diplomatically and the government is hopeful of a positive response from the Saudi King.