Sri Lanka Mounts Diplomatic Push to Save Migrant Worker Facing Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia Over Facebook Comment

Sri Lanka is intensifying diplomatic efforts to secure clemency for a 24-year-old migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, after an appellate court convicted him of blasphemy over a Facebook comment—a case that has triggered public outrage and rare cross-faith solidarity across the island nation.

Anojan Sivarasa, the eldest son of Rasamanickam Yogalakshmi, now sits on death row in the kingdom, and his family has received no word about his condition since 28 September. Speaking through tears, his mother issued a direct appeal for his life: she begged for mercy for what she described as her son's mistakes, asking that he be forgiven and returned home.

According to the reporting, the case began with a social media dispute that erupted after an incident during a Hindu pilgrimage in Sri Lanka in late June. Footage circulated widely online showing a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims, igniting heated religious arguments across social platforms. During that exchange, another user allegedly posted derogatory remarks about a Hindu deity, prompting Anojan to respond in Tamil with a comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Anojan deleted the comment soon afterwards and posted an apology video, but the post had already been screenshotted. Those images were reportedly sent to his employer and to Saudi officials, leading to his arrest in July. His personal devices were seized and his social media accounts were deleted by Saudi authorities.

His family maintains that the complaint originated not in Saudi Arabia but in Sri Lanka. Anojan's brother, Hamsidan Sivarasa, told BBC Sinhala that people in the kingdom were initially unaware of the matter and that individuals in Sri Lanka emailed the company where Anojan worked. The employer then notified Saudi authorities, who registered a case against him, according to Hamsidan.

The legal trajectory of the case has been severe and, according to Sri Lankan officials, unpredictable. Anojan was first sentenced by the Al-Ahsa Criminal Court to five years in prison along with a fine of three million Saudi riyals, equivalent to roughly $0.8m or £0.6m. An appeal seeking a reduction was rejected, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said.

The case then took what has been described as a drastic turn on 17 September, when Saudi prosecutors filed an appeal asking that Anojan be prosecuted under Sharia law rather than the country's cybercrime legislation. The appellate court granted that request and increased his sentence to the death penalty.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is taking all available steps to assist Anojan. His family met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on 21 September, where the president assured them that his government would spare no effort to obtain a general pardon, directing diplomatic channels to engage Saudi authorities.

The case has also generated unusually broad domestic support. Senior Buddhist leaders—the Mahanayake Theros of the Ramanna Nikaya and the Amarapura Maha Nikaya—joined Hindu religious leaders in handing a memorandum to the Presidential Secretariat calling for urgent state intervention. Multiple political parties and government bodies have coordinated diplomatic efforts seeking clemency, and civil society petitions have spread across the country.

In a further step, a four-member Sri Lankan legal delegation is travelling to Saudi Arabia this week to meet Anojan's local defence lawyers. Upul Kumarapperuma, a President's Counsel and member of the team, told BBC Sinhala that two law firms in the kingdom are handling the case and that the delegation intends to discuss the matter and plan the next steps.

Meanwhile, communication between Anojan and his family has completely ceased. Hamsidan said on 28 September that his brother had not called for two days and that the family had informed the embassy and asked officials to look into the matter and provide updates. They said they were told the matter would be checked, but no response had yet been received. In Saudi prisons, inmates on death row typically lose access to personal mobile devices, with formal calls strictly facilitated through prison authorities.

The Sri Lankan government has reportedly instructed the family to refrain from making further statements while diplomatic efforts are under way. Saudi authorities have not published an official execution timeline, and it remains unclear when the sentence would be carried out. Saudi Arabia has a history of carrying out executions without warning families or foreign embassies, informing relatives only after the sentence has been carried out—a practice that adds to the family's anxiety.

The case has also drawn attention to international concerns about severe punishments for online speech in Saudi Arabia. Human rights organisations have repeatedly raised alarm over such sentences. In July 2023, Mohammed Al Ghamdi, a retired Saudi school teacher, was sentenced to death over his comments on multiple social media platforms, according to the United Nations.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, described that sentence at the time as ludicrous, noting that al-Ghamdi had a total of just 10 followers on both of his anonymous Twitter accounts and was accused of nothing other than expressing his opinions on social media. Al Ghamdi's ruling was later overturned and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to ALQST, an independent non-governmental organisation defending and promoting human rights in Saudi Arabia.

The broader context is significant: there are more than 10 million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, according to the source material, a vast labour force that includes many Sri Lankans and other South Asian migrants whose livelihoods depend on employment in the kingdom. For families like Anojan's, the case highlights the vulnerability of migrant workers who can face severe legal consequences for conduct that unfolds online, far from the reach of their home country's legal protections.

For now, Anojan's family and Sri Lankan officials are waiting—hoping that diplomatic pressure, religious appeals and legal representation in the kingdom will be enough to persuade Saudi authorities to show mercy before an execution that, in the words of his mother, would take her son away from her forever.