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Sri Lanka is mounting an urgent diplomatic and legal campaign to save the life of a 24-year-old migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for a social media post he deleted and apologised for within hours of publishing it. Anojan Sivarasa, the eldest son of Rasamanickam Yogalakshmi, now sits on death row in the kingdom after an appellate court convicted him of blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
Speaking through tears, Yogalakshmi made a direct appeal for her son's life. "I plead for mercy for the wrongs committed by my son. Please forgive him and send him back to us," she said, according to BBC Sinhala.
The case has triggered widespread shock across Sri Lanka, a multi-faith nation still grappling with the aftermath of past religious tensions. Civil society petitions have circulated widely, and multiple political parties and state institutions have joined coordinated efforts to press Riyadh for clemency. The seriousness with which Colombo is treating the matter was underscored when President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met Anojan's family at the Presidential Secretariat on 21 September, assuring them his government would spare no effort to secure a general pardon.
The sequence of events that placed Anojan on death row began in late June, far from Saudi Arabia. Video footage circulated on social media showing a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims during a pilgrimage in Sri Lanka. The clip ignited fierce religious arguments online. During one such exchange, according to the source account, a user posted derogatory remarks about a Hindu deity. Anojan responded in Tamil with a comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
He deleted the comment almost immediately and posted an apology video. But the damage had already been done: his post had been screenshotted, and the image was sent to his employer and to Saudi officials. He was arrested in July. His personal devices were seized, and Saudi authorities deleted his social media accounts.
According to Anojan's brother, Hamsidan Sivarasa, the matter might never have reached the Saudi authorities were it not for individuals in Sri Lanka who emailed his brother's company. "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," Hamsidan told BBC Sinhala. The company then notified Saudi authorities, who registered a case.
The Al-Ahsa Criminal Court initially handed Anojan a five-year prison term and a fine of 3 million Saudi riyals, equivalent to roughly $0.8 million or £0.6 million. An appeal seeking a reduction was rejected, according to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath. Then, on 17 September, the case took what the source describes as a drastic turn: Saudi prosecutors filed an appeal arguing that Anojan should be prosecuted under Sharia law rather than the kingdom's cybercrime legislation. The appellate court granted the request, and his sentence was escalated to death.
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is taking all available steps to assist him. Religious leaders from across the country's faith communities have also closed ranks around the family. Senior Buddhist figures, including the Mahanayake Theros of the Ramanna Nikaya and the Amarapura Maha Nikaya, joined Hindu religious leaders in handing a memorandum to the Presidential Secretariat calling for urgent state intervention.
On the legal front, a four-member Sri Lankan delegation is travelling to Saudi Arabia this week to meet Anojan's local defence lawyers. "There are two law firms in Saudi Arabia handling Anojan's case. We are going there to meet the lawyers from these two firms, discuss the case and plan what can be done next," said Upul Kumarapperuma, a President's Counsel and member of the team.
Yet for all the diplomatic activity, the family's immediate ordeal is one of silence. They have received no updates on Anojan's condition since 28 September. The Sri Lankan government has asked the family to refrain from making further public statements while diplomatic efforts continue. Communication between Anojan and his relatives has ceased entirely. "My brother hasn't called for two days," Hamsidan said on 28 September. "We informed the embassy and asked officials to look into the matter and update us. They said they would check. We are still waiting, as we have not yet received a response."
The silence reflects a grim feature of Saudi Arabia's capital punishment system. The kingdom has a record of carrying out executions without prior notice to families or foreign embassies, informing relatives only after the sentence has been carried out. No official execution timeline has been published in Anojan's case, leaving his family and Sri Lankan officials uncertain about when the sentence might be enforced.
In Saudi prisons, death row inmates typically lose access to personal mobile devices, and formal calls are strictly facilitated through prison authorities, further isolating detainees from the outside world.
Anojan's case has also drawn attention to a broader pattern of severe punishments for online speech in the kingdom, which human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised. In July 2023, Mohammed Al Ghamdi, a retired Saudi school teacher, was sentenced to death over comments posted on multiple social media platforms, according to the United Nations. Amnesty International condemned that ruling in stark terms. "The death sentence against Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, who has a total of just 10 followers on both of his anonymous Twitter accounts and is accused of nothing other than expressing his opinions on social media, is ludicrous," said Philip Luther, the organisation's Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Al Ghamdi's death sentence was later overturned and replaced with 30 years in prison, according to ALQST, an independent non-governmental organisation defending human rights in Saudi Arabia.
The wider context is one of massive dependence on foreign labour. More than 10 million foreign workers live in Saudi Arabia, according to the source material, making the treatment of migrant workers a matter of considerable diplomatic sensitivity for the governments that send them abroad. For Sri Lanka, a country that relies heavily on remittances from workers in the Gulf, Anojan's fate carries implications beyond a single family.
For now, the family's hopes rest on the delegation in Riyadh, the lawyers handling the case, and the diplomatic channels the president has instructed to engage Saudi authorities. The instructions from Colombo to stay quiet may buy space for those negotiations — but they also mean that for Anojan's mother and brother, the waiting continues without news, and without any indication of when the silence might end.
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