DOES NOT STOP AT BEHEADING FOUR SRI LANKANS ; THEY EXHIBITED THEIR BODIES IN PUBLIC AFTER EXECUTION

By Walter Jayawardhana

In an attempt to scare other immigrant workers from committing crimes Saudi Arabia, a country accused of “medieval, barbaric and excessive” punishments exhibited the bodies of four Sri Lankans accused of armed robbery after beheading them in a public square.

The Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh said the four were executed Monday by severing their heads from bodies by a sword and the bloodied bodies were tied to wooden beams for a public exhibition.
The four Sri Lankans, all immigrant workers in that country , Victor Corea, Ranjith Silva, Sanath Pushpakumara and Sangeeth Kumara were alleged by Saudi authorities to have committed an armed robbery in March 2004 but no legal assistance was provided to them and no case has been proved against them beyond reasonable doubt, critics have alleged.

They were accused by the Saudi government of the robbery in March 2004 and convicted in October of the same year.

A professor in Imam bin Saud University Abdel RahamanAl-Luweiheq was quoted by agency reports as saying , “foreigners in the kingdom are implementing criminal plans made abroad” but he did not substantiate it.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara , the Opposition leader of the Colombo Municipal Council who first represented matters on behalf of them to the government said at first they were informed that the death sentences had been commuted to life imprisonment. At least one of those who was beheaded , Sangeeth Kumara , was informed by Saudi authorities that he had been sentenced to a 15-year jail term.

With one of the worst human rights records in the world in the past the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had executed people serving jail sentences. For instance, in 2006 after serving their jail sentences the autocratic government of the Saudi king executed six Somali men in 2006, the Amnesty international alleged.

The human rights organization said until the prisoners were killed neither they nor their families were aware of the execution and the executed had been denied consular or legal assistance.
The four Sri Lankans were also denied any legal representations. They could not understand the proceedings until later stages of the trial when they were provided with an interpreter.

Two Presidents of Sri Lanka , Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa have appealed for clemency for the prisoners and the Saudi government did not show any respect for their appeals in carrying out the execution in the medieval style in public and disrespectfully exhibiting their bodies in a public square in the capital city.

Although capital punishment is still valid in Sri Lanka, people convicted and sentenced for capital punishment are commuted to imprisonment by the head of state. No one has been executed by the state since 1976.

Human Rights organizations have accused many are sentenced to death on confessions obtained from prisoners under duress, torture and deception in the country.There are an estimated amount of 350,000 Sri Lankans serving in Saudi Arabia today.