The AHRC is happy to announce that the representative of the legal firm of Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, Attorneys at Law has traveled to Dawadimi Jailhouse and was permitted by the Jail Administration to meet with Rizana Nafeek and escort her to a Notary Public and in order to issue a power of attorney in the name of the legal firm Kateb Fahad Al-Shammari, Attorneys at Law. The power of attorney has now been obtained.
Furthermore, the legal firm has submitted an appeal to court as required by the regulations. The legal firm will submit additional justification for the appeal once it receives the Deed of Judgement which has not yet been handed over to them by the Jail Administration. The Jail Administration has promised to pass this judgement after they receive approval from the Ministry of the Interior. The legal firm is pursuing the case.
By the filing of these papers it has been possible to meet the deadline of the appeal which is today (July 16). This gives time for pursuit of the appeal in court through the legal firm as well as to make further appeals to the family of the deceased baby for pardon as well as appeals to His Royal Highness the King, in Saudi Arabia.
We have learned that large numbers of appeals have been received from all over the world at the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia and these will be handed over to the father of the deceased baby.
In order to better facilitate further appeals being made we request that the appeals be sent to the following facsimile and postal address of the embassy:
Mr. Naif Jiziyan Khalaf Otaibi
Ministry of Finance, Riyadh
C/O Sri Lankan Embassy
P.O. Box 94360
Riyadh 11693
Saudi Arabia – Fax No.00- 966 -1- 4609492
An appeal for donations for the fees of the legal firm handling the appeal
The Asian Human Rights Commission has in its earlier communications announced that as the Sri Lankan government is not undertaking the legal costs of this appeal, and as the deadline was approaching, the AHRC will undertake the obligation of payment of these costs by channeling the assistance of many well wishers who called upon the AHRC expressing their willingness to help.
The total cost of the appeal is SAR 150,000 (US$ 40,000), one third of this amount had to be paid for the firm to be retained and for that purpose US$ 13,333 was deposited by the AHRC on behalf of the legal firm on July 11, 2007. The second installment of a similar amount has to be paid once the appeal papers have been finalized after the legal firm receives the relevant documents from the Ministry of the Interior. The third installment has to be paid if the action succeeds or the death sentence is altered.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has so far received donations from two Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East who contributed US$ 1,000 and US$ 1,500 respectively. The AHRC also has an agreement from the Nona Foundation in the Netherlands for the payment of the equivalent of Rs. 600,000 which is approximately US$ 5,400.
We request any other persons, groups or organisations that are willing to contribute to the cost of this appeal to make the donations to the bank account given below:
Name of the Bank: Hang Seng Bank Ltd.
Address of the Bank: Hankow Road Branch
4 Hankow Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Account no.: 295-9-077849 (HKD saving)
Account holder: Asian Human Rights Commission Ltd.
Swift code: HASEHKHH
All receipts will be acknowledged and full disclosure will be made of all donations received as soon as the matter is completed. If any money is received in excess of the amount required it will be used for the purpose of helping persons in similar circumstances.
For making of further appeals kindly see the following web references:
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2477/
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE230262007
http://www.petitiononline.com/rizana1/
