Lankan family accepts blood money, pardons killer of housemaid

The family of a Sri Lankan maid murdered in Saudi Arabia has agreed to pardon her killer and accept SR50,000 in blood money, the Sri Lankan Embassy announced on Tuesday.

Pavani Devi Sinnaiyah, 36, who was working in Qurayat in Al-Jouf province, was killed by her Saudi sponsor on Jan. 19. Her remains were repatriated home early this month.

Although her sponsor claimed that she died under mysterious circumstances, following investigations the police arrested him as a suspect. After an autopsy on Sinnaiyah’s body, the police confirmed it was a case of homicide.

Sinnaiyah, who was unmarried, came to the Kingdom in 2008 from Maskeliya, a town in the tea-growing region of central Sri Lanka.

“We negotiated the blood money on behalf of Sinnaiyah’s family. The father of the killer agreed to a sum of SR50,000 as an out-of-court settlement,” an embassy official told Arab News on Tuesday.

The diplomat said the mission was given power of attorney by the victim’s relatives to pursue the case on their behalf.

The maid was not paid her salary for two years preceding her death, the official said, adding that the killer’s father also settled SR16,245 in salary arrears with the embassy, which sent the amount to the family through the External Affairs Ministry in Colombo.

“The negotiated blood money will be paid by the father on Wednesday to the Sri Lankan Embassy as per an agreement reached between the two parties,” he added, Arab News reports.