The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh has hired a Saudi lawyer to plead the case for a Sri Lankan woman who was allegedly killed by her American husband in Saudi Arabia.

Amaralatha, 41, was married to an American engineer who allegedly killed her over a family dispute in Dammam.

The General Court in Riyadh is currently looking into Amaralatha’s killing after her husband was charged with her murder by a representative from the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution.

A senior official from the mission told Arab News Saturday that the embassy had hired a Saudi lawyer to represent the interests of the deceased to acquire compensation for the murder.

The killing took place in Dammam in 2010. Amaralatha, who hailed from Ampara, 350 km from Colombo, had come to the Kingdom as a housemaid. She was a divorcee and had two children in Colombo at the time of her marriage to the accused.

The diplomat said that if the accused is proven guilty, the mission would request for blood money amounting to $10,000. However, the lawyer of the accused had said that the matter could be resolved out of court for SR10,000 since the accused does not have much money.

The accused disposed of the body by stuffing it into a pipeline used for gas and petroleum exploration.

The murder came to light when police in the Eastern Province Governorate received a call from the company where the accused used to work, saying they had found a body in a seated position stuffed in a special well used for gas and petroleum exploration.

Police arrested the American on the strength of testimonies given by his Chinese and Saudi co-workers at Saudi Aramco. – Arab News