But the Cassation Court endorsed the verdict of the Dawadmi. High Court and send it to Supreme Judicial Council. Thereafter the Supreme Judicial Council has referred it to the original courts which earlier sentenced Rizana to the death row.

Sri Lankan teenager Rizana arrived in Saudi Arabia to work as a house maid when she was 17 years of age. 'Our family was having hardships and so our daughter volunteered to go and work abroad to send money home,’ the father Mohammed Sultan Nafeek said in an interview.

Rizana Nafeek, holder of Sri Lanka Passport No. N. 0331835 arrived in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 4th May, 2005 to work as a housemaid in the household, of her sponsor, Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al Otaibi, whose wife had a new-born baby boy. A few days after her arrival in Riyadh, Rizana Nafeek had been transferred by her sponsor to work in his family household in Dawadami, about 390 km west of Riyadh.

A short time after she started working for this family she was assigned to bottle feed the infant who was by then four months old. Rizana had no experience of any sort in caring for such a young infant. She was left alone when bottle feeding the child. The incident, in which the infant died, had occurred around 12.30 p.m. on 22nd May, 2005, while Rizana was bottle feeding the infant.

While she was feeding, the baby-boy started choking, as so often happens to babies and Rizana panicked and shouted for help while tried to sooth the child by feeling the chest, neck and face, doing whatever she could to help him. At her shouting the mother arrived but by that time the baby was either unconscious or dead.

Subsequently, Rizana was arrested when the 4 month old baby of Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi died of choking while being bottle-fed milk by Rizana.

Rizana allegedly confessed to her crime shortly after her arrest, but has since retracted the confession, saying it had been given under duress and that there had been a misunderstanding caused by the language barrier.

Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek was sentenced to death on June 16 last year for killing the baby in the city of Dawadmi, 270 km from the capital. The verdict was given by a three member-bench headed by Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Rosaimi, chief judge of the High Court in Dawadmi.

An appeal against the beheading of the accused was filed on behalf of Rizana by Khateb Al-Shammary, a Riyadh-based law firm, on July 15, 2007. In its submissions during the appeal, Khateb Al-Shammary cited several reasons why the maid should not be punished for her alleged actions. It claimed that the maid was underage at the time of the incident and pointed out that Rizana was brought into the Kingdom as a housemaid, not as a nanny. Furthermore, the petition said that there was no reason for Rizana to harbor any vengeance against the parents of the child since she had been working for the household for only seven days.

On December 6, the Cassation Court in Riyadh returned the case to the Dawadmi High Court, seeking further clarifications on the maid’s confession to police. Subsequently, the case files were sent back to cassation court which has now endorsed the verdict of the Dawadmi. High Court and send it to Supreme Judicial Council.

When Asian Tribune contacted Hussain Bhaila, the Deputy Foreign Minister who was in Saudi Arabia in the third week of March said, “Our lawyers made a strong plea to the Supreme Judicial Council putting forward their objections. Thereafter the Supreme Judicial Council has referred it to the original court - Dawadmi High Court, which sentence Rizana and still we don’t know why it has been again referred to the High Court.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila talking to Asian Tribune said: Regarding Rizana we had some discussions with two tribal leaders. They said that after the judicial process is over and in case there is a need then to talk to the family of the deceased baby, then they will intervene in this issue. The tribal leaders are those belonging to the Al Otaibi tribes in Saudi Arabia.

We also spoke to the lawyers also spoke to Khateb Al-Shammary, a Riyadh-based law firm, representing Rizana and they said the Supreme Judicial Council has referred the case back to the Dawadmi. High Court for clarification and they have not been informed of the nature of clarification has been sought and that is where the case stands at the moment.

Even last time when the Cassation sought referred the case to the Supreme Judicial Council, we don’t know why the case was referred. And when the case was taken up and when our lawyers went there only they knew what the reference was. Subsequently the clarification was given.

I am highly optimistic of the outcome of this case and also I am optimistic after talking to the tribal leaders. If we fail in the judicial process, I hope we will not fail and then what would be left is the clemency plea.

We have tried a few times to meet Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Al-Otaibi the father of the four month old baby alleged to have died due to milk choking, but he refused to meet any of us.

I think as the judicial process is on he does not want to meet us for any clemency plea.