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Saudi Arabia defied international protests Wednesday by beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of smothering an infant child, despite her being aged just 17 at the time of the offence.

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A sword-wielding executioner carried out the death sentence on Rizana Nafeek in Dawadmy, near Riyadh, just hours after the Saudi Interior Ministry ratified the court verdict against her.

Nafeek was sentenced to death in 2007 for smothering the four-month-old boy while working as his nanny. She had been accused of killing the baby two years earlier after an argument with his mother. Nafeek said the child had choked to death on milk during a bottle feed.

The Sri Lankan government appealed the death penalty, but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in 2010. Despite an international campaign for clemency, that verdict was ratified by the interior ministry.

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