Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death on appeal in Saudi blasphemy case

A Saudi appeals court has sentenced Sivarasa Anojan, a Sri Lankan Tamil migrant worker from Natpiddimunai, Kalmunai, in the Ampara District, to death for blasphemy. The Criminal Court in Al-Ahsa had originally sentenced him to five years in prison and fined him three million Saudi Riyals. According to his family, the death sentence was handed down on Thursday (17), when the court ruled on his appeal.

A dispute over a dog

The case reportedly began during this year’s Pada Yatra, the annual Hindu pilgrimage to Kataragama. A stray dog that had walked hundreds of kilometres with the pilgrims, and which devotees named Subramaniam, became a sensation online. A video of a young Muslim man kicking the dog in Kalmunai led to his arrest and later release on bail. It also sparked a heated social media exchange, with inflammatory remarks aimed at different religious communities. Anojan’s family says a Facebook comment he posted during this period was later reported to Saudi authorities and became the basis of the charge.

Questions over the appeal

On Friday (18), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment, and Tourism said it was following the case through the embassy in Riyadh, in coordination with the Saudi Embassy in Colombo. Its statement did not mention the death sentence.

ITAK Parliamentary Group Leader and Batticaloa MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam called for intervention at the highest diplomatic level. He said the family had been advised to appeal, even though legal advice obtained by the embassy rated the chances of success as extremely low. The family paid Rs. 1,890,766 in legal fees into an account linked to the ministry’s Secretary. The appeal was filed on 24 August, but the ministry’s letter forwarding it to the family is dated 16 September. The appeal names Attorney Adlan Abdullah Al-Subaie as counsel. According to the family, however, a different lawyer appeared in court, and they were never given that lawyer’s identity or contact details.

Rasamanickam plans to ask in Parliament who chose that lawyer, how the fees were spent and whether consular handling of the case failed.

“A Sri Lankan citizen’s life is reportedly at stake. Every available legal, diplomatic, consular, and humanitarian avenue must now be pursued.”— Shanakiyan Rasamanickam

On Friday (18), the family released a video urging the authorities to intervene.