The four-member team would leave for Saudi Arabia on October 16 and stay there for a week, Muhammad Maftuh Basyuni, the head of the Task Force on the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, said here on Thursday.
Basyuni, former religious affairs minister, will be accompanied by Lisna Yoeliana Poeloengan, Benny Partiwanggono and Ramon Andrias, members of the task force, during the mission in Saudi Arabia.
Alwi Sihab, the deputy chief of the task force, had already left for Saudi Arabia.
The team would lobby the families of the victims, the Institute of Forgiveness and Peace for Disputing Parties, and the Governor of Mecca.
Seven Indonesian migrant workers are currently facing execution after being sentenced to death for murder.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had twice already requested the Saudi King to spare their lives. The Indonesian foreign ministry, through the Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had also tried several ways to ask for the pardon including from the victims` families.
He said Indonesia respects the law in that country and does not wish to interfere in the implementation of the law in that country. He said however that Islam gives an opportunity for the family of a murder victim to give a pardon.
Maftuh said 43 Indonesians were implicated in crimes punishable by death in Saudi Arabia and 24 of them had alrady been sentenced to death while the cases of 19 others were still under investigation.
Of the 24 who had been sentenced to death, six had received a pardon while five others had their sentences reviewed, six others were awaiting a pardon from the king because their cases were related to hypnotism and the remaining seven were awaiting the critical decision of whether they would get a pardon or not.
Maftuh hoped that Alwi Sihab had already met Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Abdullah Asiz bin Abdullah and the latter would be able to convey Alwi`s message to the Saudi King.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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