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# Shritharan: Man Who Insulted Shiva Lingam Is Free, Anojan Faces Death
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/shritharan-man-who-insulted-shiva-lingam-is-free-anojan-faces-death/
- Published: 2026-09-19T17:37:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-19T17:37:59.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026

**KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka-** Sivagnanam Shritharan, a senior lawmaker from Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party, urged the government on Saturday to make an urgent effort to save Sivarasa Anojan, a Sri Lankan Tamil worker reportedly sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a Facebook comment about the Prophet Muhammad.

Mr. Shritharan said the comment that landed Mr. Anojan in trouble had been written in response to another Sri Lankan social media user who, according to him, had first made a derogatory reference to the Shiva lingam, a sacred symbol in Hinduism.

The two comments, Mr. Shritharan said, were both wrong. But he questioned the starkly different consequences faced by the two men: the person who made the comment about the Shiva lingam remained free, he said, while Mr. Anojan was now facing death in Saudi Arabia.

“One person wrote disparagingly about the Shiva lingam and is going to remain at home,” Mr. Shritharan said. “Anojan wrote a disparaging reply, and he is going to lose his head.”

“Neither is acceptable,” he added. “Neither should have been written.”

Mr. Shritharan, an Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi lawmaker representing the Jaffna electoral district, made the remarks at an event marking the final day of Local Government Week organized by the Karachchi Pradeshiya Sabha in Kilinochchi.

He said he had spoken on Friday with Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s secretary, urging the government to give the case its highest attention and do everything possible to save Mr. Anojan.

“While we are speaking here, a country is considering taking Anojan’s life,” Mr. Shritharan said. “A man born among us, your brother — will he return alive, or will only his body return? What are we going to do? That is the question before us.”

Mr. Anojan, who was working in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined three million Saudi riyals after being convicted over a Facebook comment concerning the Prophet Muhammad. His family agreed to appeal in hopes of obtaining a lesser punishment. But the lawyer who attended the appellate hearing said the court instead imposed a death sentence