27 August 2008 :

the Supreme Judicial Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upheld the objection filed by the attorney of Sri Lankan housemaid, Rizana Nafeek, against her death sentence and returned the case file to the Dawadmi High Court, the Foreign Ministry in Sri Lanka said in a statement. Rizana was arrested on May 22, 2005, by the Police in Dawadmi, a town located 220 km west of the capital, Riyadh and charged with the murder of the infant son of her employer, left in her care. Rizana, who had recently arrived in the Kingdom and 17 years old at that time, claimed that the child had choked to death during bottle feeding. However, the Dawadmi High Court sentenced Rizana to death in June 2007, upon conviction for the murder of the infant, based on her initial confession to the Police, which she had subsequently retracted in Court.