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‘Please get our daughter released’: Rizana’s parents plea in Colombo High Court

By Manopriya Gunasekara

The parents, of Rizana Nafeek, who is in death row in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of strangling an infant, this week made a humanitarian plea seeking the release of their daughter. They made the plea when the case against three people who were charged for sending Rizana for employment with forged documents was taken up before Colombo High Court judge Sunil Rajapaksa.

Those charged in the case are Abdul Lathif of Safinagar, Mutur, Pakeer Mohideen of Kollupitiya and Abdul Salam. The accused pleaded not guilty when the charges were read out. Senior State counsel Dileepa Peiris led the evidence of Rizana’s mother Seiyadu Ahamdu Rathina.

In her plea, Ms Rathina said; “I am the mother of four children and Rizana was my eldest daughter. I cannot remember when she was born. My daughter went overseas when she was 17 years old. She decided to go overseas because we had many economic problems.

“She studied only upto grade nine. She could not continue her studies as we could not buy the required books. She went overseas to ensure that the other children could continue with their studies. “Lathif from Safinagar brought us to Colombo. He said that there was a job overseas. We did not give him any money nor did he pay us any. He acted as a sub-agent to send persons overseas.

“My daughter did not have an identity card or a passport. We only gave Lathif our daughter Rizana’s birth certificate. Rizana’s grandmother brought her to Colombo to go overseas. Lathif did not give us an address of where my daughter was working. “My daughter had no experience although she sought employment as a housemaid.

“Subsequently we got a message from the Saudi embassy in Colombo requesting that the father of the child call over. At that point we learnt that my daughter had been sentenced to death. We were told that a child had died while drinking milk and my daughter had been sentenced to death. “We visited Saudi Arabia on two occasions with the Foreign Employment Bureau Chairman and we met our daughter.

“My plea from the Court is to intervene to get my daughter released”. Ms Rathina was cross-examined by the counsel for the accused. “When my daughter went overseas we did not have a proper place to stay. We faced many hardships due to poverty. Rizana’s younger sister who was in year four when Rizana went overseas is today following OL classes.

“My husband used to cut firewood to make a living, but due to the LTTE problem at that times that too was affected. “It is because we did not even have a proper house to live in that we decided to allow Rizana to travel overseas. We were living in a hut”.

Rizan’s father Mohammed Sulthan Nafeeq said: “My wife nor I can read. It is because of poverty that we decided to send our daughter abroad. We were helped by our neighbour Lathif. He said since I was struggling to survive we could send our daughter. She attended training classes before she went.

“ Lathif told us that my daughter had gone overseas, but he did not tell me which country she had gone to or about the salary. I only got to know what the country was when we got a letter from the Saudi embassy. When we visited the embassy we were told that my daughter was detained after they suspected her following the death of an infant.

“Though she went for employment to work as a housemaid she did not have any experience. My appeal too is to get my daughter released from custody”. He was cross examined by the lawyers for the accused. “We lived in poverty. We were affected by the LTTE as well as the tsunami. At times we had only one meal to eat. I had to bring up four children. It is because of these hardships that we decided to send our daughter overseas,” he said.

Further hearing was fixed for January 16.

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