July 17, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hussein Bahila has scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia next Friday to plea mercy for young migrant housemaid Rizana Nafeek who is sentenced to death in Jeddah for killing a baby.

The parents of Rizana are also to go with the Deputy Foreign Minister with the hope of meeting the family members of the deceased baby who can grant pardon to the doomed housemaid. Their tour was scheduled for the past Monday but was postponed as the Sri Lanka diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia could not make an appointment with the Saudi family.

Deputy Foreign Minister Bahila met the Saudi Ambassador for Sri Lanka Mohammed Al Ali at the Saudi Embassy yesterday. The Minister said that the Ambassador promised to extend his fullest support to solve the problem. Bahila will meet the Saudi government heads and the religious leaders to discuss the problem.

Meanwhile the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that allocated money for the appeal against the death sentence announced that a power-of-attorney had been obtained in time to meet the deadline for an appeal which expired yesterday.

Rizana Nafeek who was 17 at the time was accused of killing a 4-month old baby while under her care in February 2005.