The Sri Lanka Guardian is producing below an open letter written to Alavi Moulana, the Governor of Western Province on behalf of Razina Naffek, by a Sri Lankan.
(November 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)
I am writing this to you after reading an article published by Nakeeb M Issadeen in The Island. He is concerned about saving the life of Ms. Razeena Nafeek, like all of us. I also saw your call for all the Muslims I Sri Lanka to pray for mercy on behalf of Razina Nafeek in all mosques in Sri Lanka. All of us are anxious about this issue and as you know in Razina's own village there were prayers for saving her life. About 25,000 people in her area are expected to gather and show their concern for saving of Razina.
Issadeen reminds us of the custom in Saudi Arabia for payment of blood money to the family of Razina's employer and use this avenue in the Saudi law to obtain pardon for Razina. What I thought was that you should as a leader of the Muslim people should request the Honorable President of Sri Lanka to pay whatever money to the family of the child, mentioned in the newspapers as Otaibi family and obtain pardon for Rizana. You can assure him if needed we the Muslims in Sri Lanka could raise that money among ourselves and pay back the money to the government if needed. A wise and compassionate intervention on your part with the President will bring fruit and resolve this problem. I hope that you will consider this request, which I am sure even the parents of Rizana would wish to make during this desperate moment.
Wishing you the blessing of Allah
A brother Sri Lankan
Reproduced below is the Article published in the Island written by Nakeeb M Issadeen
Saving Rizana
November 7, 2010, 7:06 pm
I have been following your Opinion Column on the subject of Rizana Nafeek who is convicted for the murder of the infant that was under her care, the latest being a letter captioned Clemency for Rizana Nafeek by Shukoor (The Island 05.11.2010).
It is true that we are very much concerned about her, but the majority of the writers, in my opinion, have not fully understood the Shariyah and Islamic Jurisprudence. Under this law Rizana was found guilty of intentional homicide without any reasonable doubts and she was sentenced to death. Unfortunately, her own statement of admitting the guilt and the mitigation plea that she lied about her age and got a forged passport to enter the kingdom to show that she was under-age when committing the crime, proved to be disastrous in her case.
Shariyah also has a compassionate provision for those who are convicted for murder. The family or well wishers of the convict can offer ‘blood money’ to the victim’s next of kin - the parents of the baby that was killed in this case - and appeal to them to pardon the convict. The law also assures them immense merits in the Hereafter if they show compassion towards the murderer. There are several instances during the Islamic tradition where this provision in the Shariyah was exercised. (This compassionate provision was originally intended to limit the revenge killings by the opposite tribe for the murder of its man by other tribe and eliminated endless wars and disputes among the rival tribes)
Therefore, requesting clemency from the king is a futile exercise because it’s doubtful whether the king can mitigate the sentence if the family disagrees unless the king offers the blood money and appeal to the family to pardon her.
Sri Lankan Government or other interested humanitarian organizations, instead of asking clemency from the Saudi king, should appeal to the parents of the slain baby by offering them a reasonable amount of ‘blood money’ and also enlighten them of the rewards they may get in the Hereafter from Allah for forgiving this girl by considering her pathetic circumstances under which she has committed such crime.
Nakeeb M Issadeen
Colombo 6
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