Sri Lanka is preparing to appeal to Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court against a Court of Appeal ruling that sentenced Sri Lankan migrant worker Sivarasa Anojan to death, a lawyer on the government’s legal team said on Friday.
“We are working on an appeal and are hoping to file it today or tomorrow at the Supreme Court,” President’s Counsel Upul Kumarapperuma told The Hindu from Riyadh. He is part of a team of senior lawyers and officials from the public prosecutor’s office sent to Saudi Arabia by the government.
Anojan, an engineer in his mid-twenties working in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced over a social media comment posted in late June. Saudi courts deemed the comment blasphemous. He was first sentenced to five years in prison, and the punishment was later increased to death. According to the report, he deleted the comment and posted an apology.
Sri Lankan Embassy officials visited Anojan this week and found him “doing alright in prison”, according to official sources. This followed reports of attacks on him by fellow inmates.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament on Wednesday that the government is taking every possible step, in accordance with Saudi law, to seek relief for Anojan and the commutation of his sentence. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met Anojan’s family on 21 September and promised to pursue every possible legal and diplomatic channel.
Amnesty International also urged Saudi authorities this week to overturn the sentence and release him, saying the charges stem from his exercise of his right to freedom of expression. The rights group said at least 175 people had been executed in Saudi Arabia as of 5 October this year.
For Sri Lankans working in Saudi Arabia and their families, the case has raised concerns about the legal risks facing migrant workers. The appeal is expected to be filed within days.
