Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has decided to overturn the death sentence given to a migrant worker over a now-deleted comment on Facebook.
Anojan Sivarasa, from Sri Lanka, was convicted of blasphemy against Islam over his response to a video of a young Muslim man kicking a dog following Hindu pilgrims.
On 28 June, the 24-year-old replied with a comment in Tamil to another user who wrote a derogatory comment about a Hindu deity by insulting Prophet Muhammad.
“The comment quickly gained attention, and a screenshot was apparently sent to Saudi authorities and Sivarasa’s employer,” the Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.
“Sivarasa deleted the comment and uploaded an apology video to his Facebook account. Sivarasa’s employer held him in its office for at least 24 hours and then took him to the Dammam police station, where he was arrested on 1 July, a family member said.”
The Al-Ahsa Public Prosecution charged Sivarasa with ‘verbally insulting and offending our Prophet Muhammad’ and ‘producing and disseminating, through the information network, material prejudicial to religious values and public morals, by publishing a comment on a social media program containing words contrary to religious values and public morals,’ according to court documents seen by HRW.
Last month, the sole breadwinner told his loved ones that he had been sentenced to death, with one family member saying: “We never expected this situation.
“The family is shocked and they still are recovering from that state of shock.”
Death sentence overturned
Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has overturned Anojan Sivarasa’s death sentence (Human Rights Watch)
Faizer Mustafa, who is involved in legal negotiations with Saudi Arabia regarding Sivarasa’s case, told BBC Sinhala that Saudi Arabia had overturned the death sentence and were reviewing the Supreme Court’s latest ruling.
“Saudi authorities should end their use of abusive laws to hand out extraordinary sentences for speech-related offenses, especially against migrant workers who are already in a vulnerable position with limited protections,” HRW senior Saudi Arabia researcher Joey Shea said.
“Sentencing a migrant worker to death over a Facebook comment that he has publicly apologized for is an outrageous overreaction from Saudi authorities amid a surge in executions.
“No one should face execution for a comment on religion.”
How many people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year?
People accused of blasphemy in Saudi Arabia who faced the death penalty (LADbible/ITV/Supplied)
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year, as of 18 June 2026.
“Foreign nationals have borne the brunt of Saudi Arabia’s ruthless use of the death penalty for drug-related offences, frequently after grossly unfair trials. It is profoundly alarming that at least 63 Ethiopian nationals, held in a single ward of Khamis Mushait detention facility in south-west Saudi Arabia, may be at imminent risk of execution solely for drug-related offences,” said Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International.
“Concerns for their safety have heightened after seven Ethiopians were executed earlier this year – all for ‘smuggling hashish’.
“Saudi Arabia’s execution spree reflects a dangerous global trend in which punitive drug policies are increasingly driving the use of the death penalty. The international community must speak out unequivocally against these unlawful executions, and Saudi Arabia must immediately establish a moratorium on the use of this cruel and irreversible punishment as a first critical step towards abolition.”
Amnesty International recorded at least 356 executions in 2025 alone.
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