🇱🇰🇸🇦 A 24-year-old Sri Lankan laborer is on death row in Saudi Arabia over a Facebook comment he’d already deleted, and his mother is begging for his life.
Anojan Sivarasa, a Hindu worker from eastern Sri Lanka, got into an online argument in June after someone made insulting remarks about a Hindu god, and he fired back with a comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
He was first handed 5 years in prison and a fine under Saudi cybercrime law, but on September 17 an appeals court upgraded that to a death sentence for blasphemy.
His mother pleaded with Saudi authorities to forgive him and to see him as their own child, saying he spoke by mistake and asking whether a life should be lost over it.
Sri Lanka is pushing for clemency, but his family says they haven’t heard from him since late September.
Writer: Julie
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