Darsem binti Dawud, escaped death by beheading after the Indonesian government announced its readiness to pay a Rp 4.6 billion (US$520,000) fine to spare her life.
"The delivery of the fine from the government to the victim`s family was conducted last June 25. The next day, Riyadh`s Vice Governor Prince Satham Abdulazis signed a letter to free Darsem," the Foreign Affairs Ministry`s Director for Middle East Cooperation Ronny Prasetyo Yuliantoro said here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Darsem`s lawyer, Elyasa, on behalf of his client expressed appreciation for the government`s effort to free the maid.
The migrant worker from Subang, West Java, previously said she killed her employer in self defense after he tried to rape her.
Poverty and inadequate numbers of jobs in the country are among factors which have forced around 4.32 million Indonesian men and women to work overseas, especially in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Tragedy and suffering sometimes befall migrant workers. Several of them came back home in coffins due to illness, murder or accidents, and some domestic helpers became disabled due to torture by their employers.
The latest tragedy befell Ruyati binti Satubi (54) from West Java, who was beheaded in Mecca on Saturday (June 18) after being found guilty of killing the wife of her Saudi employer, Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid, by striking her repeatedly on the head with a meat chopper and stabbing her in the neck, the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement.
The execution has prompted the government to protest the action to the Saudi Arabia government. Various parties, including Ruyati`s family and NGOs, have also reacted angrily as the woman was beheaded without prior notice to Indonesian representatives in Saudi Arabia.
(T.A051/HAJM/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
