Parliamentarian Faiszer Musthapha (PC) and Upul Kumarapperuma (PC) have launched a high-level diplomatic intervention to save Anojan Sivarasa, a Sri Lankan youth sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a social media post.
The decision to send the senior legal experts as special diplomatic envoys followed direct intervention by the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, who officially announced the mission in Parliament yesterday (22).
Funding the critical diplomatic mission out of their own personal resources rather than state funds, the envoys are scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to plead for the young man's life.
Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has also pledged his complete backing during a meeting with the two special envoys in the Maldives today (23).
During the discussions, former President Nasheed acknowledged that while the social media post posed a serious grievance to the Muslim community, he would intervene on strictly humanitarian grounds to assist the youth.
The crucial meeting in the Maldives marked the first official step in the international effort to secure royal clemency or a sentence reduction prior to the legal team's arrival in Saudi Arabia.
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