“I plead for mercy for the wrongs committed by my son.
Please forgive him and send him back to us,” Sivarasa’s mother, Rasamanickam Yogalakshmi, told the BBC .
On September 17, Saudi prosecutors appealed the case and asked the court to deal with it under Sharia law instead of cybercrime laws.
Sivarasa later deleted the comment and posted an apology video. But someone had already taken a screenshot of the post and sent it to his employer in Saudi Arabia. His employer informed the Saudi authorities. Sivarasa was then arrested, and his electronic devices were seized. The Al-Ahsa Criminal Court initially sentenced him to five years in prison. It then changed Sivarasa’s sentence from five years in prison to the death penalty. “We informed the embassy and asked officials to look into the matter and update us.
He was also fined 3 million Saudi riyals, around $800,000. On September 17, Saudi prosecutors appealed the case and asked the court to deal with it under Sharia law instead of cybercrime laws. Sivarasa’s family has not heard from him since September 28.
They said they would check. We are still waiting, as we have not yet received a response,” Sivarasa’s brother, Hamsidan Sivarasa, told BBC Sinhala.
