Sri Lanka Housemaid Rizana’s case back again to the High Court of Dawadmi

Hussein Bhaila, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said that this is a good development and it is viewed as a positive development.

It's coming down the the wire for Rizana. Her only real hope is that enough international pressure has been brought to bear on her behalf. Sri Lanka and a number of international organizations have been keeping her plight in the news. That there is any review of her case at all is a good sign that the Saudi's will release her.

FROM ASIANTRIBUNE.COM:

Sri Lanka Housemaid Rizana’s case back again to the High Court of Dawadmi for review on 30th June (August?-ed.)
Created 2008-08-28 05:30

Colombo, 28 August, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka Housemaid Rizana Nafeek’s case is coming up again on the 30th of this month at the High Court of Dawadmi

Hussein Bhaila, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs speaking to Asian Tribune, said that the Supreme Judicial Council has directed the High Court of Dawadmi to inquire into the objections of the lawyers of Rizana, into the first alleged confession made through (a) interpreter/s.
Deputy Minister said the lawyers of Rizana wanted to know the details of the translator/s and on what basis that the interpreter /s name has not been disclosed.
He said that the High Court of Dawadmi has been asked to look into the objections regarding the statement made by the interpreter who translated Rizana’s initial statement to the police from Tamil into Arabic.

He said that High Court of Dawadmi has made its decision based on this statement only.
He said that the High Court of Dawadmi has given a date for 30th August, for the lawyers to make their submission regarding the interpreter/s.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hussein Bhaila told Asian Tribune that this is a good development and it is viewed as a positive development.
Earlier on June 9, Chief Justice of the High Court of Dawadmi, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Rosaimi ruled that Rizana’s lawyer, Kateb Al-Shammary, must file any objections directly to the Supreme Judicial Council.

In response to the objections filed at the Supreme Judicial Council, the case has once again been referred to the High Court of Dawadmit which issued the original verdict to behead Rizana.
Razina who is now 20, was arrested on May 22, 2005, shortly after an infant in her care died. She had been working for the family for less than two weeks when, she claims, the baby choked during bottle-feeding. But the father Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi, alleged that she murdered the child. She was taken to the Dawadmi police station on that day. Later, In June 2007 Rizana was sentenced to public beheading in Dawdami by a three-member panel of judges.
A month later, lawyers hired by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission with the partial financial support of Sri Lankan donors appealed the verdict to the Court of Cassation.
In December 2007, the case was sent back to High Court of Dawdami to review its death penalty verdict. By March 2008, the case moved to the Supreme Judicial Council, which the following month sent the case back to the High Court of Dawdami. The High Court of Dawdami sent the case back to the Supreme Judicial Council. Then the Supreme Judicial Council once again bounced the case back to Dawdami.

Trials are held under closed doors and court documents are not available to the public, so the reason for the back-and-forth between the courts is not clear.
Kateb Al-Shammary, Rizana’s attorney, argues that Rizana, who was underage at the time she came to Saudi Arabia, was never hired to be a nanny and that the death occurred due to her inexperience with newborns. The Al-Otaibi family rejects this claim and insists she committed pre-meditated murder.

Further complicating the issue is that Rizana came to Saudi Arabia to work through a placement agency that forged the age on her passport to make it appear that she was 23 years old.
Her birth certificate states that she was born on Feb. 4, 1988, which means she was 17 when she came to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid and then given the task by the family — who believed she was 23 — of caring for a newborn baby.

Saudi Arabia prohibits minors (defined in this case as persons under the age of 18) from entering the Kingdom to work as part of its efforts to adhere to international rules against child labor and trafficking of minors.