Nafeek Case Back in Dawadmi Court ‘for Clarifications’

Rizana's case is moving forward, but given the fanatical adherence to Wahhabi Sharia law, overturning her death penalty is not a sure thing by any means. It could even get worse, if as on some occasions, bringing a legal appeal can be punished by adding more penalties such as lashing before execution.

FROM ARABNEWS.COM:

Nafeek Case Back in Dawadmi Court ‘for Clarifications’

Mohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News —

RIYADH, 7 April 2008 — The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the Kingdom’s highest court of appeals, has sent the case of Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan maid who was convicted of killing a four-month-old baby in her care, back to the High Court in Dawadmi for clarifications.
The case was sent to the SJC after the Court of Cassation upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentence handed down by a three-member bench, headed by Chief Judge Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Rosaimi, at the Dawadmi High Court.
“I am happy that the case has been sent back to the High Court where the original death sentence was given,” said Khateb Fahad Al-Shammary, Nafeek’s lawyer. He added that the hearing is to take place tomorrow.
In his appeal to the SJC, Al-Shammary cited several reasons why the maid should not be punished, including the fact that Nafeek was brought into the Kingdom to work as a housemaid and not as a nanny and that she was underage at the time of the offense. The petition, further, claimed that Nafeek had no reason to harbor vengeance against the parents, since she had only been working for the family for seven days.
Al-Shammary also said that he briefed Sri Lankan Ambassador Abdul Ajeed Mohammed Marleen on the latest development in the case on Saturday.
The Sri Lankan Embassy will send a team of officials, including an interpreter, to help the maid in court. The hearing is expected to be attended by Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi, the father of the four-months-old baby, Al-Shammary and Nafeek.
Last month, the Sri Lankan government sent a two-member team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila to approach the parents of the baby for clemency. The team met tribal leaders and members of the Saudi Human Rights Commission during its brief stay in the Kingdom.
Marleen, who took over duties as ambassador recently, said that his government respects the Saudi judiciary and would follow the Kingdom’s legal procedures.
Nafeek arrived in the Kingdom in May 2005 to work as a housemaid for Al-Otaibi, her sponsor, in Riyadh. A few days after her arrival in Riyadh, she was moved to Dawadmi, about 390 km west of Riyadh, to work in Al-Otaibi’s household.
Apart from performing the daily household chores of cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing, Nafeek had also been entrusted with looking after the sponsor’s four-month-old infant son, which she was not trained to do.
The baby died around 12.30 p.m. on May 22, 2005, while Nafeek was bottle-feeding him. Nafeek was arrested and she allegedly confessed to killing the child.
Nafeek repeated her confession in open court. However, at a court hearing on Feb. 3, 2007, she retracted her confession, saying she had confessed under duress.
Nafeek was convicted of murdering the infant and sentenced to death on June 16. An appeal was filed against the judgment on July 15, a day before the deadline set out by the court. The Court of Cassation affirmed the judgment and sent the case to the SJC.
In her statement to the court, Nafeek claimed that at the time of her arrival in Saudi Arabia, she was 17 and that a recruitment agent had falsified her documents and obtained a passport by overstating her true age by six years.
According to her passport, her date of birth is stated as Feb. 2, 1982, while her birth certificate indicates her actual date of birth as Feb. 4, 1988.