Two Sri Lankans from Amparai beheaded in Saudi Arabia

Two Sri Lankan from Amparai districts were beheaded on last Friday in Saudi Arabia.

The Sri Lankans were beheaded by the sword on Friday after being convicted of armed robbery and murdering a Sudanese accountant, the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry said.

Two Sri Lankan migrant workers T. Suthakaran from Amparai and Ganesh Meharaj from Kalmunai were found guilty of shooting dead and robbing one Mohammed al-Jakk Mohammed, who worked as a company accountant.

Mohammed al-Jakk Mohammed was shot and killed as he walked out of a bank in Riyadh, after withdrawing Saudi Riyal 2 million in May 2006.

Even in 2007 Saudi Arabian government beheaded four Sri Lankan migrant workers—Sanath Pushpakumara, E.J.Victor Corea, Ranjith De Silva and Sangeeth Kumara—despite years of protest from international human rights organizations and the victims’ pleaded for clemency.

When Asian Tribune contacted Hussein Bhaila, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, he said that the execution by beheading of the two Sri Lankans occurred unannounced on last Friday and it was done without being notified to the Sri Lanka Mission in Riyad.

He said that he has called for a detail report from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Saudi Arabia.

The recent two beheadings were the first to be announced in 2009, while the tally of decapitations announced by Saudi authorities in 2008 stood at 102.

In 2007, a record 153 people were executed in the country, which applies a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. That figure compared with 37 in 2006 and the previous record of 113 in 2000.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are usually carried out in public.

In October, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said the number of executions in Saudi Arabia was surging and that the principal victims were poor migrant laborers’ and Saudis without connections.