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)