Save Anojan Sivarasa! Humanists rally support for Sri Lankan man facing death penalty for blasphemy in Saudi Arabia

Humanists UK has launched a petition calling on the UK Government to act urgently to help save the life of Anojan Sivarasa, a 24-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a comment he posted on Facebook.

Anojan, reportedly a Hindu, was working in Saudi Arabia when he became involved in a religious argument online. After another user made derogatory remarks about a Hindu deity, he replied with a comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad. He deleted it within minutes and apologised publicly, but a screenshot was passed to his employer and the Saudi authorities, and he was arrested in July.

He was initially sentenced to five years in prison and fined three million riyals under Saudi Arabia’s cybercrime law. Prosecutors appealed, seeking a harsher punishment, and on 17 September an appeal court increased his sentence to death. His family have not heard from him since 28 September. No execution date has been announced.

A long record of standing up against blasphemy laws

Humanists UK is a founding member of the End Blasphemy Laws campaign and has long spoken out for those persecuted under such laws – including Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan before her acquittal was finally upheld in 2019, and Raif Badawi, the Saudi writer sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’. In 2013, Saudi Arabia pursued an online activist for apostasy over a handful of tweets, and in 2019 Humanists UK told the UN Human Rights Council that the kingdom must overturn the death sentences of two men convicted of apostasy. We have challenged blasphemy laws at the UN since 2014, and in 2015 the UK Government told the House of Lords that it opposes blasphemy laws wherever they still exist.

Closer to home, Humanists UK led the campaign that abolished the blasphemy laws of England and Wales in 2008, and Scotland followed in 2024. Northern Ireland remains the last part of the UK with blasphemy laws on the books. In June, following a long campaign by Northern Ireland Humanists, MLAs voted 57 to 24 to add repeal to the Justice Bill – but the Bill has yet to complete its passage, and the offences remain in force until it does.

Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson said:

‘Everyone has the right to speak freely about religion, and no one should ever face punishment for doing so, much less be put to death. And yet Anojan Sivarasa has been condemned to die because of a post made on Facebook.

‘There is no time to lose. We urge the Foreign Secretary to raise this case at the highest level and press Saudi Arabia to overturn this sentence without delay – and to use Britain’s influence to see blasphemy laws repealed wherever they remain.’

Northern Ireland Humanists Coordinator Boyd Sleator said:

‘For as long as these offences like blasphemy remain on the statute book in Northern Ireland, countries like Saudi Arabia can point to them whenever the UK calls for repeal. 

‘The presence of a blasphemy law on the books here undermines the UK’s ability to advocate for someone like Anojan Sivarasa, who currently faces execution for something so trivial as an argument on Facebook. MLAs voted overwhelmingly for abolition in June, and we urge them to finish the job and pass the Justice Bill without delay.’