Business Sri Lanka: Urgent Appeal For Sri Lankan Teenager Legal Fund In Saudi Beheading Case

Business Sri Lanka, in partnership with the Asian Human Rights Commission, seeks urgent donations for legal fund to save life of teenager in Saudi Arabia End Quote

The family and family home of Rizana in Sri Lanka

(1888PressRelease) July 19, 2007 - Rizana left Sri Lanka as a child of 16 or 17 to work in Saudi Arabia and has been convicted without having recourse to a fair trial. She has been sentenced to death for allegedly killing a baby. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), there seems to be good grounds for appeal since the entire case had been conducted in a language not understood by her and also without any meaningful interpretation provided to her. Rizana had no legal representation at the trial.

According to information obtained by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Rizana 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 Naffeek 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 Naffeek 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. She was made to sign a confession and later charges were filed in court of murder by strangulation.

"She had also not been legally represented at the trial. She is also quite young and is said to have left for employment a few months ago when she was only about 17 years of age. Furthermore the totality of evidence against her is supposed to be a confession which she had later withdrawn".

In a foreign country under such circumstances and being of such young age, it is quite possible that she may have made the confession under duress, the AHRC further said.

Appeal Against the Judgement on Rizana

The AHRC has announced that the representative of the legal firm of Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, has traveled to the Dawadimi prison and was permitted to meet with Rizana Nafeek and escort her to a Notary Public and in order to issue a power of attorney in the name of the legal firm Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, Attorneys at Law. The power of attorney has now been obtained.

Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari has submitted an appeal to court as required by the regulations and will submit additional justification for the appeal once it receives the Deed of Judgement which has not yet been handed over to them by the Jail Administration. The Jail Administration has promised to pass this judgement after they receive approval from the Ministry of the Interior.

By the filing of these papers it has been possible to meet the deadline of the appeal which was July 16. This gives time for pursuit of the appeal in court through the legal firm as well as to make further appeals to the family of the deceased baby for pardon as well as appeals to His Royal Highness the King, in Saudi Arabia.

Large numbers of appeals have been received from all over the world at the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia and these will be handed over to the father of the deceased baby.

Business Sri Lanka has had several requests from the Media requesting a photo of Rizana. We are unable to provide a picture and understand her family have never been able to afford a camera.

Donations Urgently Needed for the Appeal
The Sri Lankan government is not undertaking the legal costs of this appeal and, in order to enable the legal appeal on behalf of Rizana to happen within the strict deadline, the AHRC undertook the obligation of payment of these costs.

Business Sri Lanka urges immediate donations to this legal fund. The total cost of the appeal is US$ 40,000 or UK£20,000 (Euro 30,000).

US$ 13,333 has been paid to the Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari law firm as a retainer to issue the appeal. The second installment of a similar amount has to be paid once the appeal papers have been finalized after the legal firm receives the relevant documents from the Ministry of the Interior. The third installment has to be paid if the action succeeds or the death sentence is altered.

The Asian Human Rights Commission has so far received donations totaling US$8,100. The remaining funds are now urgently required. Please send what you can, little or large.

Donations should be sent to the bank account given below;

Name of the Bank: Hang Seng Bank Ltd.
Address of the Bank: Hankow Road Branch
4 Hankow Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Account no.: 295-9-077849 (HKD saving)
Account holder: Asian Human Rights Commission Ltd.
Swift code: HASEHKHH

Please also email Business Sri Lanka or the Asian Human Rights Commission of any donations sent.

All receipts will be acknowledged by the AHRC and full disclosure will be made of all donations received as soon as the matter is completed. If any money is received in excess of the amount required it will be used for the purpose of helping persons in similar circumstances.

Business Sri Lanka requests that you forward this information to as many people as possible. We need to reach large numbers of people urgently to save this girls life.

For further details please visit the Business Sri Lanka website at www.BusinessSriLanka.com

About Business Sri Lanka

Business Sri Lanka is a Business Social Network of professionals focused on building and developing business opportunities between Sri Lanka and Europe. Business Sri Lanka is non-political and operates a strict policy of inclusion. Membership includes Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnic origin or background as well as members from the UK and other European economies. Business Sri Lanka

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