Crime05 October, 20262 min read
Saudi Arabia Sentences 24-Year-Old Sri Lankan Migrant Anojan Sivarasa To Death Over Facebook Blasphemy
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Anojan Sivarasa, 24, sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for Facebook blasphemy. Sri Lankan legal delegation to travel to Saudi Arabia to appeal the death sentence.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Death sentence over Facebook
Saudi Arabia sentenced 24-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker Anojan Sivarasa to death after an appellate court advanced his case under Sharia law over a Facebook comment deemed blasphemous against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
Rasamanickam Yogalakshmi pleaded for mercy for her son, telling reporters, "I plead for mercy for the wrongs committed by my son. Please forgive him and send him back to us."
Saudi prosecutors appealed on 17 September for Anojan to be prosecuted under Sharia law rather than the country’s cybercrime legislation, and the appellate court increased his sentence to death.
The case began with an incident during a Hindu pilgrimage in Sri Lanka, where a user posted derogatory remarks about a Hindu deity and Anojan responded in Tamil with an insult directed at the Prophet Muhammad.
BBC Sinhala reported that Anojan’s brother, Hamsidan Sivarasa, said, "People in Saudi Arabia knew nothing about this matter."
Appeals, access, and silence
Sri Lanka’s government instructed Anojan’s family not to make further public statements while diplomatic efforts continued, and the family said it had received no update on Anojan’s condition since 28 September. The BBC reported that Saudi authorities had not published an official execution timeline, and it remained unclear when the sentence would be carried out. Saudi prisons typically removed death-row inmates’ access to personal mobile devices, while calls were facilitated through prison authorities, according to Arise News.
The Sri Lankan government confirmed it was taking all available steps to assist Anojan, and the family met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on 21 September. Upul Kumarapperuma, President’s Counsel, told BBC Sinhala that the delegation would meet lawyers in Saudi Arabia, saying, "We are going there to meet the lawyers from these two firms, discuss the case and plan what can be done next,"
Cross-religious pressure and precedent
Religious leaders in Sri Lanka submitted a memorandum to the Presidential Secretariat calling for urgent state intervention, with senior Buddhist leaders including the Mahanayake Theros of the Ramanna Nikaya and the Amarapura Maha Nikaya joining Hindu religious leaders. The BBC said the case had brought together cross-religious support, and it described a four-member Sri Lankan legal delegation travelling to Saudi Arabia to meet Anojan’s local defence lawyers. Amnesty International’s Philip Luther said in July 2023 that the death sentence against Mohammed Al Ghamdi was "ludicrous," and the UN had reported that Al Ghamdi was sentenced to death over comments on several social media platforms.
Arise News reported that Saudi Arabia had previously carried out executions without informing families or foreign embassies beforehand, with relatives sometimes learning of an execution only after the sentence had been carried out. The BBC reported that Anojan’s family had had communication cease, with Hamsidan Sivarasa saying on 28 September, "My brother hasn't called for two days."