A married woman has been sentenced to death by stoning in Saudi Arabia after admitting to adultery – while the man she had sex with has escaped with a punishment of 100 lashes.
The 45-year-old Sri Lankan woman who had worked as a maid in Riyadh since 2013, and her partner, also a migrant from the island nation, were both convicted of adultery in August.
However, their sentences were very different.
While the woman was told by a Sharia court she would be pelted with stones until she died for cheating on her husband, her lover was handed only lashes – because he was single at the time.
Now, Sri Lanka has announced it is calling on the Arab nation to pardon the female worker.
Upul Deshapriya, spokesman for the country’s Foreign Employment Bureau, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the bureau has hired lawyers to file an appeal in the shocking case.
‘She has accepted the crime four times in the courts,’ Deshapriya said. ‘But the Foreign Employment Bureau has hired lawyers and have appealed against the case.
‘The appeal is going on. Also from the foreign ministry side, they are in negotiation with the Saudi government on a diplomatic level.’
Source: TBW