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THE execution of an Indonesian maid who killed her Saudi employer during a rape attack has sparked an uproar in Jakarta.
The Indonesian capital has filed an official protest with Saudi Arabia after the oil-rich kingdom executed the domestic worker without notifying her family or consular staff.
Tuti Tursilawati was executed Monday in the city of Thaif in the Mecca province, Indonesia’s foreign ministry said, seven years after she was sentenced to death for killing her employer in an act she claimed was self-defence from sexual abuse.
President Joko Widodo criticised the decision yesterday, saying the government has officially protested to Riyadh and demanded better protection of Indonesian workers in the country.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director at the foreign ministry’s Indonesian citizens protection department, told reporters on Tuesday the move was “regrettable”.
“The execution of Tuti Tursilawati was done without notification to our representatives, either in Riyadh or Jeddah,” he said at a press conference.
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has ignored principles of human rights, including a right for everyone to live,” said Abidin Fikri, a member of Indonesia’s parliament.
Tursilawati claimed she was acting in self defence when she killed her employer in 2011 after he tried to rape her.
Migrant Care, an NGO advocating for the rights of Indonesian workers abroad, condemned the execution and urged the government to take serious diplomatic steps.
It said Indonesia should reverse its recent decision to allow a limited number of Indonesian migrant workers to Saudi Arabia despite a 2015 moratorium banning new domestic workers from entering 21 Middle Eastern countries.
Indonesia introduced the ban following the execution of two other Indonesian maids by Saudi Arabia the same year.
Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of Islamic sharia law.
As well as the Middle East, Indonesia also sends domestic workers to many parts of Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and has often complained about the treatment of its workers abroad.
A Hong Kong woman was jailed for six years for beating and starving her Indonesian maid and keeping her prisoner, in a high-profile case that drew attention to the abuse of domestic helpers in the financial hub.
All in all, there are currently 18 Indonesian migrant workers on death row in the Middle Eastern kingdom.
The Tursilawati case comes as the Indonesian government has demanded a thorough probe into the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was allegedly murdered by Saudis on October 2.
