Sri Lankan death-row prisoner Anojan Sivarasa has been moved to a different cell at Dammam Prison in Saudi Arabia after sustaining facial injuries in an altercation with another inmate, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament on Wednesday.
Herath made the statement while updating the House on the government’s efforts to overturn the death sentence imposed on Sivarasa, the Daily Mirror reported.
What the embassy was told
Officials of the Sri Lankan Embassy have visited Dammam Prison, where Sivarasa is held, on two occasions. On the latest visit, on 6 October, they met the prison warden and the prison doctor to ask about an incident in which Sivarasa was reported to have been injured, Hiru News reported.
The account both outlets carry is the one prison authorities gave the embassy, relayed to Parliament by the Minister. On that account:
- The scratches and marks on Sivarasa’s face resulted from a physical altercation that followed a verbal dispute with another inmate sharing the same cell.
- The prison doctor confirmed that no knives, tools or other weapons were used, and that the injuries were caused by the other inmate’s fingernails.
- Prison authorities assured the embassy there is no identified threat to Sivarasa’s life, and that measures have been taken to ensure his safety.
Sivarasa has since been transferred to a different cell within the prison, the Minister said.
Neither newsroom carries Sivarasa’s own account of the incident, his family’s, or any independent verification of the prison’s version.
The appeal, and a date that now matters
Herath also gave Parliament the first firm date for the ruling that put Sivarasa on death row: the Saudi Court of Appeal delivered its verdict on 17 September 2026.
That fills a gap this desk has carried since the sentence was first reported. Sivarasa was originally sentenced by the Al-Ahsa Criminal Court to five years and a fine of three million Saudi riyals; the capital sentence followed appellate proceedings in which his own appeal and a counter-application by the opposing side were determined together.
The Attorney General’s Department said in September that it would file before the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia within the stipulated 30-day period. A 17 September verdict places that window in mid-October — arithmetic, not a date any outlet states, and neither filing says whether the appeal has yet been lodged.
Preparation of that appeal is underway “with the intervention of the Sri Lankan Government”, assisted by a legal team from Sri Lanka and Saudi legal consultants, both outlets report. A four-member delegation led by Additional Solicitor General Azard Navavi, PC, left for Saudi Arabia last week to finalise the appeal documents with two Saudi law firms, in meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
Herath assured Parliament that the government remains committed to taking all possible steps within the Saudi legal framework to seek relief.
Not reported
Neither filing says when the altercation occurred — only that the embassy asked about it on 6 October — nor whether the other inmate faced any disciplinary or criminal action.
No outlet reports the terms of the Court of Appeal’s 17 September verdict, whether the Supreme Court appeal has been filed, or the outcome of Wednesday’s meetings with the two Saudi law firms. Neither filing gives any update on the separate track — the formal written appeal to the King of Saudi Arabia for a pardon that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake pledged to the family on 21 September.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
