UN decries Saudi beheading of Sri Lankan maid
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A Sri Lankan vendor displays the front page of daily newspapers in Colombo on Thursday. Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sri Lankan maid on Wednesday after she was convicted of murdering her employer's baby, drawing sharp condemnation from Colombo which had repeatedly urged a stay of execution. -- PHOTO:AFP
GENEVA (AFP) - The UN's human rights body on Friday said it was "deeply" dismayed by Saudi Arabia's beheading of a Sri Lankan maid convicted of murdering her employer's baby.
"We express our deep dismay at the execution," Mr Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
Rizana Nafeek was only 17 when she was charged with murdering her employer's baby a week after arriving in Saudi Arabia in 2005.
She was found guilty of smothering the infant to death after an argument with the child's mother, and despite concerns about her trial and numerous appeals from Sri Lanka and the international community she was beheaded on Wednesday.
