Labor exporters seek for Nasiroh's release

JAKARTA (JP): The association of Indonesian labor export companies, Apjati, will seek leniency from the Saudi Arabian government to release Indonesian worker Nasiroh, convicted of murder, in the upcoming Ramadhan fasting month.

Chairman of the association Rusdi Bahasuan said yesterday the request was extended because the kingdom used to grant mercy and remission to prisoners in the Moslem holy month.

According to the lunar calendar, Ramadhan will start in late December.

"We all have to try and pray (for her release). Hopefully we will succeed," Rusdi told Antara after receiving a honorary medal from the Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief. Rusdi had just arrived from Saudi Arabia.

"If our request is approved, Nasiroh will hopefully be able to celebrate Idul Fitri holiday at home," Rusdi added.

The medal was awarded to those who helped Nasiroh escape the death penalty. Waleed Al Swaidan, chairman of the committee for foreign labor recruitment in Saudi, also received a medal.

Nasiroh of Cianjur, West Java, was sentenced to death in 1993 after she admitted to having killed her employer Saleh Al Senedi. She had her death penalty reduced to five years of imprisonment on Oct. 29 after one of Senedi's wives decided to forgive her.

The milder sentence means that 26-year-old Nasiroh will leave Gassim City penitentiary in September next year.

Swaidan said the court ruled Nasiroh was guilty because she confessed three times to murdering Senedi, although four fellow employees testified she had not.

Latief said Tuesday that Nasiroh told her visiting brother Abdul Majid that she admitted to the murder, but it was actually her Bangladeshi boyfriend who killed Senedi after learning that Nasiroh's employer had sexually harassed her several times.

Nasiroh's case led to a public outcry and pressured the government to seek every means to save her. In September, another Indonesian worker in Saudi, Soleha Kadiran, was executed after being found guilty of killing her employer. (amd)