Indonesian workers face execution in Saudi Arabia

JAKARTA (JP): Two Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia may face the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

The Ministry of Manpower's director general of labor placement, Jack Iskandarsyah, said that Dimiyati Usro and another unnamed Indonesian were currently on trial for murder.

Dimiyati is accused of murdering his wife and his employer's parents, while the other Indonesian is charged with bludgeoning his employer to death.

Jack could not provide extensive details about the cases or the name of the labor contractor which took the two to Saudi Arabia.

"It could have been PT Abul Pratama," Jack said when asked about Dimiyati's labor contractor.

But PT Abul Pratama director Faried Nahdi was quoted by Antara as saying that he had not received any news either from the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi government or the Ministry of Manpower.

"I visited the ministry on Thursday, but there was no news that any of the company's migrant workers would be beheaded," Faried said referring to the usual form of execution in Saudi Arabia.

Faried added that he had gone through his files and could not find Dimiyati's name.

Antara reported yesterday that the Indonesian Embassy had provided a local lawyer, Al Hasim, to defend the unnamed Indonesian.

Half of a dozen people from Women's Solidarity for Human Rights staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday at the Ministry of Manpower demanding an explanation of Dimiyati's case.

"We regret that the information on the matter is not available," they said in a statement.

The government has been criticized for its poor handling of the problems facing Indonesian migrant workers.

Last year, Indonesians were shocked when they heard 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 as she escaped the death penalty after one of the murdered man's wives pardoned her.

Nasiroh still has to complete a five-year prison term which ends in September.

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 are the foreign countries with the highest number of Indonesian workers. (byg)