Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, O.L. Ameer Ajwad, has visited Anojan Sivarasa at Dammam Central Prison to brief him on the court process ahead, in the first consular visit reported since the Kingdom’s Supreme Court set aside his death sentence.

The visit followed the Supreme Court’s decision to quash the death penalty imposed on Sivarasa and refer the matter for a fresh hearing. This desk reported that ruling, handed down on 13 October, when it was announced.

What the embassy says was discussed

According to a statement from the Sri Lanka Embassy in Riyadh, reported by Hiru News, the ambassador and Sivarasa discussed the consular and legal assistance available to him for the forthcoming proceedings, with the aim of ensuring he is adequately briefed on the judicial process.

Ameer Ajwad reaffirmed the embassy’s continued engagement with the case and stressed the importance of close coordination between Sivarasa, his legal counsel and the embassy through the hearings to come — while expressing, the statement said, full respect for the independence of the judiciary and due process of law in Saudi Arabia.

The ambassador also met prison authorities and thanked them for their cooperation with the embassy and for their care of Sivarasa during his detention.

The embassy’s written statement, reproduced in Hiru’s report, records that the ambassador was accompanied by Vindana Munasinghe, Secretary for Consular Affairs, and Sahul Hameed, an interpreter at the mission in Riyadh. Hiru’s own text does not mention either official.

The case so far

Sivarasa, a Tamil worker from the east of the country, was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a social media comment. An appeal was filed in the Supreme Court and the sentence was set aside days later. Ameer Ajwad had visited him at Dammam earlier in October as well, before the ruling.

With the matter referred back for a fresh hearing, Sivarasa remains in custody at Dammam.

A date discrepancy

Hiru’s report describes the visit as having taken place “yesterday (27)” — an internally inconsistent formulation, since the filing itself is dated the morning of 27 October. The embassy statement carried in the same report is dated 26 October 2026 and says the visit took place on 26 October 2026. This article follows the embassy’s own date.

Not reported

No date has been reported for the fresh hearing, and the filing does not say whether Sivarasa must still serve the separate prison term imposed in his case or whether that part of the judgment also falls away. It does not say whether his family in Sri Lanka has been briefed, what his current condition is, or whether his legal team has been able to meet him since the ruling. No Saudi official is quoted.

Only Hiru News had filed on this visit at the time of writing; the Daily Mirror’s breaking news listing and NewsFirst’s front page carried nothing on it. The underlying document is a Sri Lanka Embassy press release, which is a primary government source rather than one of this site’s verified newsrooms, and the credibility rating above reflects the single newsroom filing.

Sources