Faiszer Musthapha PC MP and Upul Kumarapperuma PC have met former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed as Sri Lanka’s effort to save Sivarasa Anojan from a death sentence moves beyond Colombo. Nasheed has offered to assist on humanitarian grounds. The two lawyers are expected to travel onwards to Saudi Arabia, at their own expense, to pursue the legal avenues still available.
The effort to save Sivarasa Anojan from a death sentence in Saudi Arabia has entered another stage, with President’s Counsel Faiszer Musthapha MP and President’s Counsel Upul Kumarapperuma meeting former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed to discuss possible humanitarian intervention.
Nasheed has offered his assistance after meeting the two Sri Lankan lawyers in the Maldives. While describing the conduct that led to Anojan’s case as deplorable, the former President indicated that he was prepared to assist on humanitarian grounds as Sri Lanka attempts to secure relief for the expatriate worker.
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The distinction is important. The effort is not an attempt to defend the social-media material that resulted in Anojan’s prosecution, nor is it an attempt to challenge Saudi Arabia’s sovereign right to enforce its laws. The objective is to use the legal, diplomatic and humanitarian avenues available within the Saudi system to prevent the death sentence from being carried out.
Musthapha and Kumarapperuma are expected to travel onwards to Saudi Arabia, where they intend to work with Anojan’s Saudi legal representatives and examine the remaining possibilities for intervention. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament that both President’s Counsel had volunteered their services and would meet their own travel expenses.
The Government, however, is not leaving the financial burden of Anojan’s formal legal defence to the two lawyers or his family. Herath told Parliament that Sri Lanka will meet the legal costs because Anojan is a registered worker with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, while expenses already incurred by the family are also to be reimbursed.
The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh remains directly involved and is maintaining contact with Anojan while examining the legal avenues available before the higher Saudi courts. The Foreign Ministry has said it continues to engage Saudi authorities through diplomatic channels and will provide all possible assistance.
The case has escalated dramatically from the original punishment imposed on Anojan. A Saudi criminal court initially sentenced him to five years imprisonment, imposed a fine of three million Saudi riyals, ordered confiscation of the relevant device and directed closure of the social-media account concerned after finding him guilty under Saudi cybercrime legislation.
An appeal was subsequently lodged seeking a reduction of that punishment. Saudi prosecutors, however, separately appealed for a more severe penalty under Sharia law. The appellate court accepted the prosecution’s position, treated the conduct as an offence involving insult to the Prophet Muhammad and imposed the death sentence.
That sequence is significant because the legal effort has not ended with the appellate judgment. Sri Lanka is now examining what further review may be available within Saudi Arabia’s judicial system while simultaneously pursuing clemency through diplomatic channels.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is preparing a formal appeal to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud seeking clemency. The Government is also proposing a cross-party parliamentary delegation led by Deputy Speaker Rizvie Salih to carry the appeal, while Foreign Minister Herath intends to raise Anojan’s case directly with his Saudi counterpart.
Nasheed’s involvement now adds another dimension.
As a former President of the Muslim-majority Maldives and an internationally recognised political figure, his intervention could provide an additional humanitarian channel at a moment when careful diplomacy matters considerably more than public confrontation.
There is also a lesson here from Sri Lanka’s own history. The execution of Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia in 2013 remains deeply embedded in the country’s memory. Whatever the legal differences between the two cases, that experience demonstrates why diplomatic and legal intervention must begin while avenues remain open rather than when they are almost exhausted.
There can be no guarantee of success in Anojan’s case. Saudi Arabia’s judicial processes must be respected, and ultimately any judicial review, commutation or act of clemency lies within Saudi authority.
But Sri Lanka can determine the quality of its own response. It can ensure that competent lawyers are involved, that every remaining legal remedy is examined, that diplomatic relationships are used intelligently and that a citizen facing the ultimate punishment is not left to navigate a foreign legal system alone.
That is what is now beginning to happen. Two President’s Counsel have stepped forward at their own expense, the Foreign Ministry and Sri Lankan Embassy are engaged, the President is preparing an appeal, a parliamentary delegation is proposed and a former President of the Maldives has now offered his assistance.
The next stage will be Saudi Arabia, where legal representation and humanitarian diplomacy will have to work together. For Anojan and his family, what matters now is not how many people say they are concerned, but whether that combined effort can convert concern into the one outcome that matters most: saving his life.
