COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — An opposition lawmaker has asked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal intervention with Saudi Arabia's crown prince on behalf of a Sri Lankan Tamil man whose prison sentence in the kingdom has reportedly been converted into a death sentence.
The lawmaker, Mano Ganesan, who leads the Tamil Progressive Alliance, wrote on X on Saturday that Mr. Dissanayake should bring the case of Sivarasa Anojan to Mr. Modi's urgent attention and ask him to raise it with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He said Sri Lanka should seek a humanitarian resolution.
Mr. Anojan, who was working in Saudi Arabia, was convicted over a Facebook comment that authorities deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined three million Saudi riyals, about $800,000. His family agreed to appeal in the hope of a reduced punishment. Mr. Anojan later told them that the appellate court had sentenced him to death instead.
Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the sentence, saying it has not received the written judgment. The lawyer who attended the hearing informed the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh of the outcome verbally, the ministry said, adding that the ruling could be challenged before Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court within one month. The ministry said it was in contact with Saudi authorities and pursuing diplomatic and legal avenues.
Mr. Ganesan's appeal would add India, Sri Lanka's closest large neighbor, to those efforts. Mr. Modi has visited Saudi Arabia three times as prime minister, most recently in April 2025 at Prince Mohammed's invitation. The two men held talks in Jeddah and jointly chaired the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council, and a joint statement issued afterward described a relationship spanning security, defense, energy, investment, technology and trade. Mr. Modi has called the crown prince his brother.
The relationship also runs through channels that do not appear in joint statements, according to two former senior Indian officials who worked on Gulf affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the external affairs minister, has dealt with Prince Mohammed directly over several years and has built a personal rapport with him, the officials said, and the crown prince's circle regards Mr. Modi as a leader worth accommodating on individual requests. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private diplomatic dealings.
Mr. Modi visited Colombo in April 2025, when Sri Lanka conferred on him the Sri Lanka Mitra Vibhushana, its highest honor for a foreign head of state or government.
Mr. Dissanayake's office has not said publicly whether it will approach New Delhi. Mr. Anojan's family has about a month to file an appeal to the Saudi Supreme Court.
