Following a conviction for practising black magic with his friends in Riyadh, a domestic worker from Sri Lanka, was sentenced to one year in jail and 100 lashes, ‘Ada Derana’ reported.
The accused, Premanath Pereralalge Thungasiri, was working as a house driver in a Saudi home, according to the Sri Lankan Embassy source.
An embassy official who had met Thungasiri said that on charges of black magic and for violating local regulations by meeting an unknown woman against Saudi Law, Thungasiri had been booked by the police in the Ummul Hammam district.
In May last year, in order to resolve a dispute involving a housemaid, Thungasiri had visited another Saudi’s house, where he claimed the maid was his relative and during the dispute police made the arrest.
Thungasiri’s family, his wife and two children (a daughter and a son) live in Padiyatalawa, 200 km off Colombo.
Thungasiri will complete his jail term in May this year, according to a jail official and there are chances for him to be deported home even before his scheduled release, if the clemency is given early, as his name has been listed in the amnesty list.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is yet to hand over the copy of the official verdict on Thungasiri’s judgment to the Sri Lankan Embassy and prior to the verdict, Thungasiri had said in his statement to the embassy that his Saudi sponsor has nothing to do with the case.
He had surrendered his passport and other documents to prison authorities for his deportation.
A Sri Lankan woman too was arrested recently on suspicion of practising witchcraft after she allegedly gazed at a child wearing a black cord around her wrist in a shopping complex, the report said.
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