A 24-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death over a Facebook comment judged to be blasphemous, BBC reports.
Anojan Sivarasa was first jailed for five years and fined three million Saudi riyals under the kingdom’s cyber crime law. On September 17, however, prosecutors pushed for a retrial under Sharia law, and an appeals court raised the punishment to death.
The case stems from an online argument over religion. Sivarasa reportedly joined the exchange after another user mocked a Hindu deity, and he replied with a comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
He removed it within minutes and later apologized in a video. By then, a screenshot had reportedly reached his employer and the Saudi authorities, and he was arrested in July.
His family says they have had no word from him since September 28. Saudi authorities have not named an execution date.
Humanists UK has started a petition, launched Wednesday, asking the British government to step in. Its chief executive, Andrew Copson, said the Foreign Secretary should take the matter up with Riyadh “at the highest level”.
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He argued that no one should be punished for speaking about religion, let alone executed, and urged London to use its influence to push for the repeal of blasphemy laws worldwide.
Sri Lanka’s government is seeking a pardon. The BBC reports that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met the family in September and promised to do everything possible to secure his release.
A four-member legal team has also traveled to Saudi Arabia to consult the lawyers on the case. Buddhist and Hindu leaders and civil society groups have submitted a memorandum to the presidential secretariat calling for action.
Sivarasa’s brother, Hamsidan, told BBC Sinhala that the family approached the Sri Lankan embassy once contact stopped. He said people in Saudi Arabia knew nothing of the matter and that individuals in Sri Lanka emailed his brother’s company. He declined to name them.
Rights groups have long criticized Saudi Arabia for harsh punishments over online speech. Executions for blasphemy are considered rare compared with those for drug offences and murder.
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