Rizana left Sri Lanka as a child of 16 or 17 to work in Saudi Arabia and has been convicted without having recourse to a fair trial. She has been sentenced to death for allegedly killing a baby. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), there seems to be good grounds for appeal since the entire case had been conducted in a language not understood by her and also without any meaningful interpretation provided to her.
"She had also not been legally represented at the trial. She is also quite young and is said to have left for employment a few months ago when she was only about 17 years of age. Furthermore the totality of evidence against her is supposed to be a confession which she had later withdrawn".
In a foreign country under such circumstances and being of such young age, it is quite possible that she may have made the confession under duress, the AHRC further said.
See also BBC News: www.bbc.co.uk/
Rizana went abroad to work while still a schoolgirl and at an age that makes it illegal for the agency to have sent her aborad. Her family have no means of funding an appeal, and without urgent support Rizana will be executed by beheading.
Business Sri Lanka is awaiting further information on this case which will be published here. We do know that this child labourer was subjected to what would be considered to be unfair working conditions even for a seasoned adult. Her working day began at 3am and continued until very late each night. Herself a child, she was trasked with looking after 10 children.
Business Sri Lanka is appealing for financial and other support to save this young girl and to seek an appeal to her conviction. We are in the process of establishing a legal defence fund for Rizana. However, until the fund is in place we ask that you complete the form below and pledge your support, including financial support for this urgent appeal.
Time is short and immediate action is of the essence.
Other details on what you can do can be found on the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) at: www.ahrchk.net/
Pledge your support now. Go to businesssrilanka.com/
