Court to Review Death Verdict on Rizana Today

Things are coming to a head for Rizana Nafeek. Her appeal is being heard today (08 Dec) in Dawadmi, Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, she will be freed to return home after this ordeal. There has been a lot of international pressure in her behalf, but when it comes to Saudi, Sharia is the only "law".
FROM ARABNEWS.COM:
Court to Review Death Verdict on Rizana Today
Mohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News —

RIYADH, 8 December 2007 — The appeal hearing in the case of a Sri Lankan maid, who was sentenced to death after a four-month-old infant in her care died, is set to take place today before a three-judge panel in a court in Dawadmi.
“There is every possibility of Rizana (Nafeek) being acquitted and for her to be free from this case once and for all,” Hussain Bhaila, Sri Lanka’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, told Arab News.
The Dawadmi court has been ordered by the Court of Cassation (the Saudi appeals court) to review its verdict. Nafeek claims that the newborn choked while she was bottle-feeding him; the parents contend that she murdered the child in her third week on the job.
Nafeek was convicted of murdering the infant on June 16. An appeal was filed against the judgment on July 15, a day before the deadline set out by the court, after which she would have lost the opportunity to appeal.
The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh is expected to send a team of officials including an interpreter to look after Nafeek’s interests in court. Nafeek allegedly confessed to her crime shortly after her arrest, but she has since retracted this confession, which she said was the result of a misunderstanding related to the language barrier and her duress.
Khateb Al-Shammary, a law firm based in Riyadh, filed the appeal after the intervention by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
Speaking to Arab News, AHRC Executive Director Basil Fernando praised the efforts made by the Saudi Human Rights Commission to save Nafeek.
“Officials from the Saudi commission have met the relatives of the infant regarding the issue,” he said in an interview with Arab News in October.
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