mother of the maid |
A maid convicted of killing a baby has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia, despite being only 17 at the time of the crime.
Rizana Nafeek was beheaded by sword
in Dawadmy, near the capital Riyadh, on Wednesday morning.
The execution went ahead despite
years of international appeals from Miss Nafeek's family and human rights
groups.
Supporters of the housemaid, from
Sri Lanka, say the age on her passport was changed so she could get work and
that according to her birth certificate she was just 17 at the time.
The Sri Lankan government said it
'deplores the execution' and human rights groups also condemned her death.
Miss Nafeek was sentenced to death
in 2007 after her Saudi employer accused her of strangling his four-month-old
baby two years earlier after a dispute with the child's mother.
But Miss Nafeek always protested her
innocence and said the baby had choked to death while being bottle fed.
Her parents repeatedly appealed to
King Abdullah to pardon their daughter.
The Sri Lankan government also
appealed against the death penalty but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in
2010.
It was again ratified by the Saudi
interior ministry yesterday.
The Sri Lankan foreign ministry said
in a statement that President Mahinda Rajapaksa twice personally appealed to
the Saudi government to halt the execution and pardon Miss Nafeek.
It added: 'President Rajapaksa and the government of Sri Lanka deplore the execution of Miss Rizana Nafeek despite all efforts at the highest level of the government and the outcry of the people locally and internationally over the death sentence of a juvenile housemaid.'
The government held a minute's
silence on Wednesday.
Amnesty International said the
passport Miss Nafeek used to enter Saudi Arabia in May 2005 stated she was born
in February, 1982.
However, the group said her birth certificate states she was born six years later, making her just 17 at the time of the baby's death.
Human Rights Watch also condemned
the execution.
Nisha Varia, senior women's rights
researcher at the organisation, said: 'Saudi Arabia is one of just three
countries that executes people for crimes they committed as children.
'In executing Rizana Nafeek, Saudi authorities demonstrated callous disregard for basic humanity as well as Saudi Arabia's international legal obligations.'
Miss Nafeek said her original
confession and been made under duress and there translation services were not
made available to her.
Amnesty International said Miss
Nafeek had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or at
her 2007 trial.
Philip Luther, the organisation's
Middle East and North Africa programme director, said the day before the
execution: 'It appears that she was herself a child at the time and there are
real concerns about the fairness of her trial.'
Saudi households are highly
dependent on housemaids from African and South Asian countries and there are
reportedly 1.5million domestic servants working in the oil-rich country.
There have been reported cases of
domestic abuse in which families mistreat their maids, who have then attacked
the children of their employers.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy
that follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies sharia law.
Last year as many as 76 people were
beheaded last year, according to The Telegraph.
DAILY MAIL
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