Saudi Arabia executes 175 people this year, majority foreign nationals: Sri Lanka files urgent appeal to Supreme Court for migrant engineer

Riyadh — A senior legal team dispatched by the Sri Lankan government arrived in the Saudi capital this week to file an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking the revocation of the death sentence against migrant engineer Sivarahasa Annoahan.

"We are preparing the appeal and aim to submit it to the Supreme Court today or tomorrow," Presidential Legal Counsel Upul Kumaraperuma told The Hindu from Riyadh on October 9. He is a member of a high-level legal team sent by the Sri Lankan prosecution service.

According to The Hindu, Annoahan, in his twenties, was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia when he posted a statement on social media in late June referring to the Prophet Muhammad. The post was promptly deleted and he publicly apologised, but Saudi courts still ruled that it amounted to blasphemy, initially sentencing him to five years in prison before increasing the punishment to capital punishment.

This transnational judicial case traces its origins to the aftermath of a communal conflict within Sri Lanka. During the pilgrimage season, the Kataragama temple in southern Sri Lanka draws large numbers of devotees. According to local media reports, a Muslim man in Karumunai in the eastern Ampara district was filmed attacking a pilgrimage dog named Subramani — the dog had travelled hundreds of kilometres with Kataragama pilgrims — and the video went viral on social media, sparking sharp clashes between Tamil and Muslim communities. Annoahan joined the discussion and made remarks touching upon the Prophet.

The case has triggered a rare cross-communal, cross-party mobilisation within Sri Lanka. On October 7, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that the government was "taking every feasible step under Saudi law to seek relief for Mr Annoahan and pursue a reduced sentence." On September 21, President Anura Dissanayake met Annoahan's family at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo and committed to advancing the case through "all legal and diplomatic channels." Some Sri Lankan political figures have suggested asking Indian Prime Minister Modi to help reach out to the Saudi Crown Prince.

Amnesty International issued a statement earlier this week calling on Saudi authorities to "urgently revoke the death sentence against Annoahan" and, on the basis that the charges stem entirely from the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, demanding his "immediate and unconditional release."

The same statement revealed more structural data: as of October 5, 2026, Saudi Arabia had executed at least 175 people this year, the majority of them foreign nationals, with at least 94 foreign nationals from more than 20 countries executed, including in many drug-related cases. Saudi Arabia is among the countries with the highest execution rates in the world, and its labour market is heavily dependent on migrant workers from regions including South Asia.

Although Sri Lanka retains the death penalty on its statute books, it has not carried out an execution in 50 years; calls for abolition have surfaced only sporadically, and parliament has never completed the corresponding legislation.

Annoahan's case falls precisely within this gulf between judicial scales. An engineer from a South Asian country has been sentenced to the ultimate penalty for a social media comment that was deleted and apologised for, while his home country has effectively abolished capital punishment for decades. Saudi Arabia's dependence on South Asian labour, juxtaposed with the vulnerability of these workers within the judicial system, constitutes a tension that cannot be avoided in any structural reading of the Gulf migrant economy.

The specific content of Annoahan's original social media remarks has not been fully disclosed to date, and the judicial reasoning surrounding the boundaries of freedom of expression and the conviction for blasphemy has likewise not been made public, making it difficult for outside observers to independently examine the legal basis of the sentence.

According to official sources, officials from the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia visited Annoahan in detention earlier this week and found him to be "in acceptable condition in prison." Earlier reports had said he was attacked by fellow inmates, but there are discrepancies between official and media accounts.

Whether the Saudi Supreme Court will accept the appeal and ultimately revoke the death sentence remains unknown.