Rizana Nafeek

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, United Nations independent experts and the world body’s human rights office voiced their dismay over the execution of Nafeek. Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in Geneva, "We are deeply troubled by reports of irregularities in her detention and trial, including that no lawyer was present to assist her in key stages of her interrogation and trial, that language interpretation was poor, and Ms. Nafeek’s contention that she was physically assaulted and forced to sign a confession under duress". The Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, noted that during the appeal of the case, the defence submitted that Nafeek was beaten and made to sign a confession under duress. "Her execution is clearly contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture," he said.

The Saudi Government stated that the statements made by various organizations were not true and that she was given a proper trial. After the verdict, there were attempts by the government to obtain pardon from the baby’s parents but they failed.

Nafeek was beheaded on 9 January 2013, despite an appeal from the government of Sri Lanka.

According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, "Nafeek allegedly signed a confession, but her lawyers argue that the confession was made under duress and, more importantly, Nafeek had no access to a translator during the initial questioning after she was arrested in 2005. Confessions are typically written in Arabic and signed by fingerprint." Nafeek signed an affidavit on 30 January 2007 stating that the confession had been coerced:

Nafeek was imprisoned and sentenced to death on 16 June 2007. The President of Sri Lanka twice personally requested a pardon for Nafeek from the King of Saudi Arabia. Human rights activists held many demonstrations calling for her release. In October 2010, according to a senior official of Sri Lanka's external affairs ministry, Charles, Prince of Wales, appealed to the Saudi King, seeking clemency for Nafeek. The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission appealed to Queen Elizabeth II to intervene and plead for clemency for Nafeek on her diamond jubilee.

Nafeek was allegedly 17 years old when she arrived to work in Saudi Arabia on 4 May 2005. Her parents alleged that her passport was forged to adjust the year of birth to 1982, to avoid rules stopping those under the age of 18 being recruited in Sri Lanka for work abroad. She began work as a domestic helper in Dawadmi, about 400 kilometres from Riyadh.

On 22 May 2005, her employer's four-month-old child Naif al-Quthaibi died while in Nafeek's care. Nafeek was accused of murdering the child by smothering him following an argument with his mother. Nafeek claimed that she believed the baby had choked on a bottle by accident during feeding. The baby's parents and Saudi police insisted that Nafeek was guilty of murder.

Rizana Nafeek (Sinhala: රිසානා නෆීක් , Tamil: ரிசானா நபீக் ; 4 February 1988 – 9 January 2013) was a Sri Lankan woman convicted and subsequently executed in Saudi Arabia for the murder of four-month-old Naif al-Quthaibi. Her parents alleged that in order to get work in Saudi Arabia, the date of birth was altered on Nafeek's passport, and in reality she was under 18 when the offence took place; this made her execution contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nafeek claimed that her initial confession was made under duress and without linguistic assistance.