A Saudi appellate court has increased Anojan Sivarasa’s sentence to death over a Facebook post, turning a July arrest into the most severe possible outcome for the 24-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker. The case now sits with Saudi authorities after prosecutors sought to move it from cybercrime legislation to Sharia law.
Al-Ahsa Criminal Court had originally sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of 3m Saudi riyals. An appeal filed on his behalf to reduce that punishment was rejected, and Saudi prosecutors then appealed on 17 September for the case to be pursued under Sharia law instead of cybercrime legislation.
Saudi Arabia court ruling
The appellate court granted that request and increased the sentence to death after finding him guilty of blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad over the Facebook comment. The comment was deleted by Anojan Sivarasa, and he later posted an apology video. Saudi officials then seized his personal devices and deleted his social media accounts.
The path from a deleted post to a death sentence shows how quickly a social-media dispute can move into capital punishment when prosecutors shift the legal basis of the case. In this case, the difference between cybercrime legislation and Sharia law is the difference between prison and execution.
Sri Lanka and family appeal
The family last received updates on 28 September, leaving his mother, Rasamanickam Yogalakshmi, pleading for a reversal. Speaking through tears, she said, “I plead for mercy for the wrongs committed by my son. Please forgive him and send him back to us.”
Hamsidan Sivarasa said the dispute grew out of material circulating online in Sri Lanka. He told Sinhala, “People in Saudi Arabia knew nothing about this matter. It was individuals in Sri Lanka who sent emails to the company where my brother worked. I do not even wish to mention who those people are,”
Presidential Secretariat intervention
On 21 September, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met the family at the Presidential Secretariat. Senior Buddhist leaders and Hindu religious leaders also handed over a memorandum there calling for urgent state intervention, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka said it is taking all available steps to assist Anojan Sivarasa.
The pressure now falls on Saudi Arabia. Sri Lankan officials and the family are seeking clemency, but the appellate ruling has already pushed the case into death-penalty territory, and no official execution timeline has been made public.
