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Colombo: Sri Lanka on Friday raised concerns with Saudi Arabian officials about the recent public execution of four Sri Lankans, including the beheading of a person sentenced to 15 years in jail, the foreign ministry said.
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told Sultan Al Dakhel, the Saudi charge d'affaires in Colombo that there is a "widespread concern in Sri Lanka with regard to the carrying out of these executions," the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday, Victor Corea, Ranjith Silva, Sanath Pushpakumara, and Shamila Sangeeth Kumara were executed for committing a number of armed robberies.
The foreign ministry said Sangeeth Kumara who had been given a 15-year jail term had also been executed. Bogollagama told Al Dakhel that the Sri Lankan embassy in Riyadh was not notified before or after the execution and asked him to convey his concerns to the Saudi Arabian government.
He also appealed that the Saudi authorities enable the bodies be transported back to Sri Lanka.
In Saudi Arabia, persons convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.
A report by Amnesty International said that besides the four Sri Lankans, six other foreigners - three Pakistanis, two Iraqis and one Nigerian - have been executed so far this year, along with seven Saudis, including one woman.
In 2006, 86 men and two women were executed, half of them foreign nationals, the report said.
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