The petition
We need your urgent help with donations to a legal fund and to write in support of a teenage girl, Rizana, facing beheading in Saudi Arabia. For donations every dollar helps so even small donations are vital.
This petition has been created by Business Sri Lanka, a not-for-profit network (www.BusinessSriLanka.com) who are working closely with the Asian Human Rights Commission to raise support for Rizana.
Please read on;
Rizana left Sri Lanka as a child of 16 or 17 to work in Saudi Arabia and has been convicted to death by beheading without a fair trial. She has been sentenced to death for allegedly killing a baby. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), there seems to be good grounds for appeal since the entire case was conducted without an interpretor and Rizana had no legal representation at the trial.
According to information obtained by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Rizana went to work at the house of Mr. Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al Otaibi whose wife had a new-born baby boy. Her working day began at 3am every day and finished late every night. 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 had no experience 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 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 then the baby was either unconscious or dead. The family members handed Rizana to the police, accusing her of strangling the baby. At the police station 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. She was made to sign a confession and later charges were filed in court of murder by strangulation.
At a trial with no legal representation and no translator, the only evidence against Rizana was the confession she was made to sign at the police station – a statement obtained in and signed without an interpretor and where neither Rizana nor the police spoke the others language. Rizana had later withdrawn this confession.
In a foreign country under such circumstances and being of such young age, it is quite possible that she may have made the confession under duress, the AHRC further said.
Appeal Against the Judgment on Rizana.
The AHRC has engaged a local law form to file an appeal. A representative of the legal firm, Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, has traveled to the Dawadimi prison and was permitted to meet with Rizana Nafeek and escort her to a Notary Public and in order to issue a power of attorney in the name of the legal. The power of attorney has now been obtained and the law firm now represent her.
This law firm has submitted an appeal to court as required by the regulations and will submit additional justification for the appeal once it receives the Deed of Judgment which has not yet been handed over to them by the Jail Administration. The Jail Administration has promised to pass this judgment after they receive approval from the Ministry of the Interior.
By filing these papers it has been possible to meet the deadline for the appeal which was July 16. This gives time for pursuit of the appeal in court through the legal firm as well as to make further appeals to the family of the deceased baby for pardon as well as appeals to His Royal Highness the King, in Saudi Arabia.
Large numbers of appeals on behalf of this young girl have been received from all over the world at the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia and these will be handed over to the father of the deceased baby.
Business Sri Lanka has had several requests from the Media requesting a photo of Rizana. We are unable to provide a picture and understand her family have never been able to afford a camera.
Donations Urgently Needed for the Appeal
The Sri Lankan government is not undertaking the legal costs of this appeal and, in order to enable the legal appeal on behalf of Rizana to happen within the strict deadline, the AHRC undertook the obligation of payment of these costs.
Business Sri Lanka urges immediate donations to this legal fund. The total cost of the appeal is US$ 40,000 or UK£20,000 (Euro 30,000).
US$ 13,333 has been paid to the Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari law firm as a retainer to issue the appeal. The second installment of a similar amount has to be paid once the appeal papers have been finalized after the legal firm receives the relevant documents from the Ministry of the Interior. The third installment has to be paid if the action succeeds or the death sentence is altered.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has so far received donations totaling US$8,100. The remaining funds are now urgently required. Please send what you can, little or large.
Donations should be sent to the bank account given below;
Name of the Bank: Hang Seng Bank Ltd.
Address of the Bank: Hankow Road Branch
4 Hankow Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Account no.: 295-9-077849 (HKD saving)
Account holder: Asian Human Rights Commission Ltd.
Swift code: HASEHKHH
Please also email Business Sri Lanka or the Asian Human Rights Commission of any donations sent.
All receipts will be acknowledged by the AHRC and full disclosure will be made of all donations received as soon as the matter is completed. If any money is received in excess of the amount required it will be used for the purpose of helping persons in similar circumstances.
Business Sri Lanka requests that you forward this petition to as many people as possible. We need to reach large numbers of people urgently to save this girls life.
See http://businesssrilanka.com/Ur... for more details.
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