Sri Lankan President offers Rs. 1 million to family of housemaid executed in Saudi Arabia

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today met the parents of Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan housemaid beheaded in Saudi Arabia, at the Temple Trees today (22).The President presented a check for Rs. 1 million from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to Nafeek's parents, Ahamadu Seyiyadu Fareena and Mohamed Najeeb Sulthan.

Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare, Dilan Perera, Chief Minister of the Eastern Province M. N. Abdul Majeed, Trincomalee District parliamentarians M.S. Thaufeek and A.H.M. Azwer were also present,

Sri Lanka deplored the execution of Nafeek by Saudi Arabian authorities despite pleas to stay an execution order, and recalled its Ambassador in Riyadh as a protest.

Nafeek took up employment in Saudi Arabia as a housemaid in 2005 at age 17 to alleviate her family's extreme poverty.

Naffek's mother has reportedly turned down a US$ 16,000 cash offer from a Saudi prince.

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