A 24-year-old Sri Lankan construction worker, Anojan Sivarasa, has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after a Tamil-language Facebook reply was judged to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad. He posted the reply on June 28, deleted it and uploaded an apology, but a screenshot was reportedly sent to his employer, who detained him and handed him to police on July 1. A criminal court initially convicted him under the Anti-Cyber Crime Law and sentenced him to five years in prison, a 3 million riyal fine, confiscation of his device, and closure of his Facebook account; after the prosecution appealed, an appellate court on September 17 upgraded the penalty to death. Sivarasa, who had been in Saudi for about ten months and is his family’s sole breadwinner, was later attacked in detention and required medical treatment.
Rights advocates demand the sentence be quashed and Sivarasa released, arguing execution for a speech-related offense - especially by a vulnerable migrant worker - is a gross excess and violates international limits on capital punishment. The case is presented alongside broader concern about Saudi execution practices, noting over 2,000 executions in the past decade and a record at least 356 executions in 2025. Calls include ending abusive speech and cybercrime prosecutions and protecting migrants who face limited legal safeguards.
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