Indonesia has filed an official protest with Saudi Arabia after the kingdom executed an Indonesian migrant worker which was carried out on Monday without the prior knowledge of her family or Indonesian officials.
Tuti Tursilawati was executed in the city of Taif, Indonesia's foreign ministry said, seven years after she was sentenced to death for killing her employer in an act she claimed was self-defence from sexual abuse.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi immediately called her Saudi counterpart Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir to express her disapproval on the execution, of which she was notified after it took place on Monday.
“Tuti’s execution was carried out without [prior notification]. I also summoned the Saudi ambassador [Usamah Muhammad Al Syuaiby] in Jakarta to meet me in Bali,” she told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, according to a distributed recording of her interview as cited from thejakartapost.com.
President Joko Widodo criticised the decision on Wednesday, saying the government has officially protested to Riyadh and demanded better protection of Indonesian workers in the country.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director at the foreign ministry's Indonesian citizens protection department, told reporters on Tuesday the move was "regrettable".
"The execution of Tuti Tursilawati was done without notification to our representatives, either in Riyadh or Jeddah," he said at a news conference.
Tursilawati claimed she was acting in self-defence when she killed her employer in 2010 after he tried to rape her. She was charged with the premeditated murder of her employer’s father, who she beat to death with a stick. According to Saudi criminal law, the act is punishable by had ghillah (absolute death).
After the incident, Tuti ran away from her employer but was raped by nine Saudi men before the police took her into custody. All of her rapists were processed separately.
Migrant Care, an NGO advocating for the rights of Indonesian workers abroad, condemned the execution and urged the government to take serious diplomatic steps.
It said Indonesia should reverse its recent decision to allow a limited number of Indonesian migrant workers to Saudi Arabia despite a 2015 moratorium banning new domestic workers from entering 21 Middle Eastern countries.
sources: The Jakarta Post, Aljazeera