Foreign Minister tells Parliament Faiszer Musthapha PC MP and Upul Kumarapperuma PC will assist the legal effort, as former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed volunteers his support for a humanitarian appeal to Saudi Arabia’s leadership.
Sri Lanka’s efforts to save Sivarasa Anojan from a death sentence in Saudi Arabia have gathered fresh momentum, with Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath telling Parliament today that President’s Counsel Faiszer Musthapha MP and President’s Counsel Upul Kumarapperuma have undertaken to assist with legal representations in the case.
Herath told Parliament that the two lawyers have agreed to travel to Saudi Arabia at their own expense and coordinate with the lawyers representing Anojan and other relevant authorities.
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NEWSLINE understands that former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has now volunteered his assistance to Musthapha and Kumarapperuma in pursuing a humanitarian appeal at the highest levels of the Saudi leadership.
The proposed representations would seek the intervention of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in an effort to secure clemency for the Sri Lankan national.
The initiative adds a further diplomatic and humanitarian dimension to the legal efforts already under way.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed that all available measures be deployed in seeking relief for Anojan, with the Government pursuing both legal and diplomatic channels.
Foreign Minister Herath has also indicated that he intends to raise the case with his Saudi counterpart during the UN
General Assembly, while a Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation has been proposed to carry an appeal from the Government to Saudi Arabia.
The legal effort, the Government’s diplomatic intervention and Nasheed’s proposed assistance could therefore create several parallel channels through which Sri Lanka will seek clemency.
For Anojan and his family, however, the issue remains desperately simple: time matters.
Be that as it may.
