By Jaffna Monitor Staff
Saudi Arabia has dropped its case against Anojan Sivarasa, a Sri Lankan migrant worker who was sentenced to death in September over a Facebook comment deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.
On Nov. 9, Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution Office decided not to pursue the case further. The decision ends the case against Mr. Anojan, 24. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry announced the decision on Wednesday and said arrangements were being made to bring him home soon.
The case drew international attention after an appeals court in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region raised his five-year prison sentence to death on Sept. 17. Human Rights Watch called the ruling “an outrageous overreaction from Saudi authorities amid a surge in executions,” and Amnesty International urged Saudi Arabia to overturn it.
Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court set aside the death sentence on Oct. 14. Other penalties from his conviction stayed in place until the prosecutor’s decision ended the case.
The ministry did not say what those penalties were, whether Mr. Anojan was still in custody or when he would return.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath credited the outcome to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s guidance, his own diplomatic intervention and the work of diplomats in both countries. He also thanked the Saudi government and judiciary, as well as a team of Sri Lankan lawyers who traveled to Saudi Arabia for the case.
Members of Mr. Anojan’s family visited the Foreign Ministry in Colombo on Wednesday to thank the president, the ministry and the officials involved.
Mr. Anojan is from Natpiddimunai, in Kalmunai in the eastern district of Ampara, and went to Saudi Arabia for work in September 2025. On June 28, during an online dispute over a dog that had walked with pilgrims on the Pada Yatra, the annual foot pilgrimage to Kataragama, he posted a comment in Tamil under a Facebook video. The comment, which Jaffna Monitor has reviewed, was highly derogatory toward the Prophet Muhammad. He later deleted it and posted a video apology. He was arrested in early July.
A lower court sentenced him to five years in prison. Both the public prosecution in Al-Ahsa and his lawyer appealed, with prosecutors seeking a harsher punishment under Islamic law. The appeals court imposed death as a hadd punishment, a fixed penalty under Shariah for certain offenses.
In Sri Lanka, politicians across party lines appealed for clemency. The government sought a royal pardon.
