Govt to help worker facing execution in Saudi Arabia
Govt to help worker facing execution in Saudi Arabia
JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon dispatch a lawyer to
help Indonesian worker Dimyati Usro who has reportedly been
convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife,
Jumanah, in the oil-rich country of Saudi Arabia, Minister of
Justice Muladi said yesterday.
"Honestly, I have no idea about the case, because I've just
been a minister for a week. But we will help him get his rights,
and I will ask the Indonesian Bar Association (Ikadin) to send
its lawyers," Muladi was quoted by Antara as saying in Semarang,
Central Java.
Separately, the news agency also reported yesterday from
Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, that Dimyati's daughter, Dewi
Sartikawani, pleaded with the government to make an all-out
effort to save her father from being beheaded.
"Please help me save my father from being beheaded," pleaded
the teary 15-year-old junior high school student in her shanty in
Gubuk Derek village, 50 kilometers east of Mataram.
Dimyati's plight gained media attention over a week ago along
with an Indonesian maid, Warni binti Sawiran, who is facing a
possible death sentence for allegedly bludgeoning her employer to
death.
Under Saudi Arabian law, murder is punishable by death. The
sentence is usually carried out by beheading.
Muladi said that under an international convention on the
death penalty, a defendant is given the right to defend him or
herself until the last minute before execution.
According to Antara, Dimyati is currently being held on death
row in Al Islaiyah prison in Mecca.
Under Saudi Arabian law, Dimyati's death sentence can only be
reversed if there is a pardon from the murdered's family.
Last year, Indonesians were shocked when they learned that a
migrant worker, Solehah Anam Kadiran, had been beheaded in Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, in September.
She had been convicted of killing her employer.
People were even more outraged when they learned that Nasiroh
Karmudin, another female Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia, was
also about to be executed for a similar crime.
Intensive diplomatic efforts worked in Nasiroh's favor and she
escaped the death penalty after one of the murdered man's wives
pardoned her.
Given the large number of problematic Indonesian workers in
Saudi Arabia, the government launched a massive airlift in
November to bring 24,000 workers home.
There are about 600,000 Indonesians working legally in Saudi
Arabia. Most of them are women.
Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have the highest number of
Indonesian workers outside the country. (aan)