Rizana Reafeek Daughter of a Nation

An extremely deprived, poor Muslim family from Muttur, decided to find some stability to their living by sending their 17 year old eldest daughter for employment in the Middle East. In 2005 the salary would have been around Sri Lankan Rupees  16,000 (USD 150) per month and that for them would have been substantial.

 Rizana Nafeek arrived in Saudi Arabia in May 2005 to work as a housemaid. She was sent by her parents after the family lost all possessions and became refugees due the Tsunami in 2004.

Rizana Nafeek (4 February 1988 – 9 January 2013) was a Sri Lankan woman convicted and subsequently executed in Saudi Arabia for the murder of four-month-old Naif al-Quthaibi. It is alleged that in order to get work in Saudi Arabia the date of birth was altered on Nafeek's passport when in reality she was under 18 when the incident took place.

Her execution was contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The initial confession made by Nafeek was claimed to have been made under duress and without linguistic assistance.

This poor girl from remote Muttur, Rizana Nafeek, would not have even known, her passport was made with a false date of birth to get Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE)  approval. That’s when helpless parents are held responsible too for the misfortunes of their under aged children.

She 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 Nafeek 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 Nafeek 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.

Riyana's story came to light late in 2007, between  2005 to 2007 all the diplomacy and the attempt to release were blurred. Appeals at diplomatic level from Sri Lanka rarely affected the outcomes of the case and only the mission could render help.

During the two years Sri Lanka’s efforts to release her resulted in  nothing. It was a crucial period for both her and the country but it slipped away. Saudi Arabians are hostile towards migrant workers and its legal system reflects that fact. 

Judicial proceedings were in Arabia and it was known that Rizana was not provided with an interpreter. Although the missions in Saudi Arabia were aware of the situation their policies disabled legal aid to migrant workers. Instead she had to appear in court with an Indian Malayaly interpreter. Malayalam and Tamil are two different languages and Malayalam in not the language Rizana understands, and the interepreter has since left Saudi Arabia.

Within this background, whether Sri Lanka did all her could to secure her release is debatable. We could have done a lot more. Rizana was on death row in June 2007 and sentenced in September 2010 by the Supreme Judicial Council. It was only in October 2010 that Sri Lanka fully intervened. But by that time, her prospect of being set free was substantially diminished.

Rizana Nafeek was arrested in May 2005 on charges of murdering an infant in her care. She was 17 years old at the time. On 16 June 2007, she was sentenced to death by a court in Dawadmi, a town west of the capital Riyadh. The sentence was subsequently upheld by the Court of Cassation and sent for ratification by the Supreme Judicial Council. However, the Council sent it back to the lower court for further clarification. The case then went back and forth between the courts until 25 October 2010, when the Supreme Court in Riyadh upheld the death sentence. The case was then sent to the King for approval of the death sentence; The King did approve the death sentence, Rizana Nafeek was executed by beheading. On 9 January 2013.

Rizana appeared in court in February 2007. She appeared in courts again only in 2010. In the long interim, the absence of any support legal or otherwise for her barred the opportunity for a fair trial.

Rizana Nafeek had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or at her first trial. She initially “confessed” to the murder during interrogation but has since retracted her confession, which she says she was forced to make under duress following a physical assault. 

Her defense depended only on the Asian Human Rights who readied funds to pay blood money expecting the family of the deceased infant would pardon Rizana - something even Government of Sri Lanka  didn’t come forward with. When the case was before the Royal Court, the parents of the deceased child and the Reconciliation Committee (RC) of the Riyadh Governor were requested to meet to reach an amicable settlement. It was reported that the mother was in great urgency to witness Rizana’s execution.

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. After physical assault she was made to sign a confession and later charges were filed in court of murder by strangulation.

As the significance of the case heightened in Sri Lanka the two foreign employment subagents who sent her abroad were sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment by the Colombo High Court and ordered each to pay Rs. 60,000 as compensation to her parents.

Last week the Supreme Judicial Council of Saudi Arabia informed Riyadh Governorate about the verdict making her execution imminent. President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent the second appeal on January 5 seeking her release. During the last few days, a delegation was being assembled including her parents to visit her. They had been waiting for her father to be discharged from the hospital where he was seeking treatment.

The amount of internationally attention the beheading of Rizana got is significant that the Saudi government was so furious and had to issue an media statement justifying that the parents are unwilling to pardon her  despite repeated request by the Saudi government and the  the Kings personal appeal.

It’s appalling that her parents still reside in a makeshift home despite all the support rendered to their daughter. They are survivors of the 2004 Tsunami and deserve more. 

For her family, offers of help keep coming. But in flashes of stabbing reality her mother asks "What's the point of money or a better house if my child back is dead?"

References.

• Fernandez, Minelle. "A family in pain - Al Jazeera Blogs." Blogs - Al Jazeera Blogs. N.p., 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/asia/family-pain>.
• "Execution of Rizana Nafeek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Rizana_Nafeek>.
• Perera, Kusal. "Waking up to migrant employment through Rizana Nafeek - Groundviews." Groundviews - Journalism for Citizens. N.p., 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://groundviews.org/2013/01/14/waking-up-to-migrant-employment-through-rizana-nafeek/>.
• Proudman , Charlotte . "The beheading of a housemaid in Saudi Arabia highlights slave-like conditions - Comment - Voices - The Independent." The Independent The Independent | News . The Independent , 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-beheading-of-a-housemaid-in-saudi-arabia-highlights-slavelike-conditions-8451951.html>.
• "SAVE RIZANA NAFEEK." SAVE RIZANA NAFEEK. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.rizananafeek.com/#>.