Rp 700 Million Still Needed to Buy Back Life of Condemned Maid in Saudi Arabia
Ismira Lutfia & Rahmat | March 07, 2011
At least Rp 700 million ($80,000) is still needed to save a female Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia from being executed, a senior official said on Sunday.
Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government has so far raised about Rp 4 billion from various ministries to pay the financial compensation for Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, who was convicted in May 2009 by a Saudi court for murdering her employer.
“We have been working for Darsem and hopefully she will return to Indonesia soon,” he told reporters. “In the next couple of months, we will be struggling to get amnesty for her.”
Muhaimin said his office was continuing to coordinate its efforts to save Darsem with the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNPPTKI) and the Migrant Workers Placement Agency (PJTKI) in Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that, in addition to state agencies, a number of donors in Saudi Arabia also pledged to help.
“We don’t need to worry since there are various sources [raising money]. We heard there have been contributions from donors in Saudi Arabia and that is good — progress is being made,” he said.
According to the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, Darsem, who comes from Subang in West Java, was convicted by a Riyadh court in May 2009 for murdering her Yemeni employer. The judge sentenced her to death by beheading, despite Darsem’s plea that she had killed her employer in self-defense because he had been attempting to rape her.
In January the victim’s family forgave Darsem and agreed to spare her, if she came up with Rp 4.3 billion in compensation — what is known in Arabic as diyat , or blood money.
The Indonesian government has been given six months to collect the sum, but is allowed to seek an extension.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kusuma Habir said the legal proceedings had already entered the appeals stage, which meant there was a possibility the court would cancel or reduce the payoff.
Source: The Jakarta Globe
Darsem binti Dawud from Subang, West Java, has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murdering her employer. - Photo Source SCTV
Even if the sum is paid, Darsem binti Dawud Tawar would still be required to serve a prison term.
She is from Turungtum, Patimban, in Pusakanegara province.
She left her eight-months old son Safi'i, to become a housemaid through PT. Titian Hidup Langgeng in 2007.
In the same year, Darsem was reported to have killed her employer, an act of self-defense because her employer had tried to rape her.
She is not the first Indonesian migrant worker to face the death sentence in Saudi Arabia.
In January 2008, Yanti Sukardi was beheaded for killing her employer.
Yanti was said to have suffocated her employer with a pillow and then stolen her jewellery.
Beheading in Saudi Arabia is usually done by scimitar in a public square.
65 men and two women were executed in 2009, but the number fell to 26 men in 2010.
Human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the abuse of maids in Saudi Arabia.
Alone and unprotected, a large number have complained of violent physical attacks and rapes by their employers.
But still, there are many more in the desert kingdom, as wages are very much more than in their own country.
Darsem's father hope that his daughter will return home alive, as Safi'i, now four-years old, still needs his mother.
He is in the care of her parents as the father had walk out of the family and remarried.
Another housemaid from Sukabumi, West Java who is facing execution is 26-year old Ny Eni binti Katma Mumu from Munjul Gegerbitung, in the province of Sukabumi.
She is guilty of killing her newborn upon delivery, in her employer's house.
She claimed to have strangled the baby, then threw the infant's body in a water container at the compound of her employer's house.
Her mother, despite disappointed with her daughter's act on the baby she had, with her husband, still hope that the Saudi government will grant pardon on her.
Photo Source - Sun TV
Entin Kartini had worked as a domestic maid for two-years before, in Saudi Arabia.
She had sent money to her family in Sukabumi, West Java.
But her second time being a maid was not the family expected her to be.
The 30-year old mother of three, from Tegal Panjang in Cirenghas, Sukabumi, left for Saudi Arabia in May, 2010 with PT Putri Mandiri Abadi.
After spending 10-months in the kingdom, in early February 2011, her family was informed by the agency that brought her to Saudi, to bring her home from Jakarta.
She is mentally disturbed.
She was traumatised, always in a panic state, after seeing her housemaid friend committed suicide in Saudi Arabia.
She was back in Indonesia since the last week of February, and was treated in Kramat Jati Hospital, Jakarta, before seeing a specialist in her hometown.
Her husband, Bubun, resigned to fate upon knowing the stress state of his wife
The family had tried all means to bring her back toher normal self.
Anger overwhelmed her, she often shouted at the top of her voice, that sometimes she looked as if being possessed.
Other times, although she look normal, but her speech is still not understood.
The body of a 20-year old Indonesian maid is still in the morgue since early December.
Imas Masrikah, another migrant worker from Pasir Kandeul, in Sumaju village, of Nyalindung district was said to have died after 14-months working in Saudi Arabia.
PT Buana Safira in Cililitan, East Jakarta, flew her to the kingdom, and she worked for the family of Fuad Abdul Aziz.
Her family is still waiting for the body to return to Sukabumi, West Java.
Een, Imas's elder sister, a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia too, is yet to confirm the cause of the death, either due to a fall while trying to escape from her employer, or abused to death.
Ismira Lutfia & Rahmat | March 07, 2011
At least Rp 700 million ($80,000) is still needed to save a female Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia from being executed, a senior official said on Sunday.
Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government has so far raised about Rp 4 billion from various ministries to pay the financial compensation for Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, who was convicted in May 2009 by a Saudi court for murdering her employer.
“We have been working for Darsem and hopefully she will return to Indonesia soon,” he told reporters. “In the next couple of months, we will be struggling to get amnesty for her.”
Muhaimin said his office was continuing to coordinate its efforts to save Darsem with the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNPPTKI) and the Migrant Workers Placement Agency (PJTKI) in Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that, in addition to state agencies, a number of donors in Saudi Arabia also pledged to help.
“We don’t need to worry since there are various sources [raising money]. We heard there have been contributions from donors in Saudi Arabia and that is good — progress is being made,” he said.
According to the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, Darsem, who comes from Subang in West Java, was convicted by a Riyadh court in May 2009 for murdering her Yemeni employer. The judge sentenced her to death by beheading, despite Darsem’s plea that she had killed her employer in self-defense because he had been attempting to rape her.
In January the victim’s family forgave Darsem and agreed to spare her, if she came up with Rp 4.3 billion in compensation — what is known in Arabic as diyat , or blood money.
The Indonesian government has been given six months to collect the sum, but is allowed to seek an extension.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kusuma Habir said the legal proceedings had already entered the appeals stage, which meant there was a possibility the court would cancel or reduce the payoff.
Source: The Jakarta Globe
******
Darsem binti Dawud from Subang, West Java, has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murdering her employer. - Photo Source SCTV Even if the sum is paid, Darsem binti Dawud Tawar would still be required to serve a prison term.
She is from Turungtum, Patimban, in Pusakanegara province.
She left her eight-months old son Safi'i, to become a housemaid through PT. Titian Hidup Langgeng in 2007.
In the same year, Darsem was reported to have killed her employer, an act of self-defense because her employer had tried to rape her.
She is not the first Indonesian migrant worker to face the death sentence in Saudi Arabia.
In January 2008, Yanti Sukardi was beheaded for killing her employer.
Yanti was said to have suffocated her employer with a pillow and then stolen her jewellery.
Beheading in Saudi Arabia is usually done by scimitar in a public square.
65 men and two women were executed in 2009, but the number fell to 26 men in 2010.
Human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the abuse of maids in Saudi Arabia.
Alone and unprotected, a large number have complained of violent physical attacks and rapes by their employers.
But still, there are many more in the desert kingdom, as wages are very much more than in their own country.
Darsem's father hope that his daughter will return home alive, as Safi'i, now four-years old, still needs his mother.
He is in the care of her parents as the father had walk out of the family and remarried.
******
Another housemaid from Sukabumi, West Java who is facing execution is 26-year old Ny Eni binti Katma Mumu from Munjul Gegerbitung, in the province of Sukabumi.
She is guilty of killing her newborn upon delivery, in her employer's house.
She claimed to have strangled the baby, then threw the infant's body in a water container at the compound of her employer's house.
Her mother, despite disappointed with her daughter's act on the baby she had, with her husband, still hope that the Saudi government will grant pardon on her.
******
Photo Source - Sun TV
Entin Kartini had worked as a domestic maid for two-years before, in Saudi Arabia.
She had sent money to her family in Sukabumi, West Java.
But her second time being a maid was not the family expected her to be.
The 30-year old mother of three, from Tegal Panjang in Cirenghas, Sukabumi, left for Saudi Arabia in May, 2010 with PT Putri Mandiri Abadi.
After spending 10-months in the kingdom, in early February 2011, her family was informed by the agency that brought her to Saudi, to bring her home from Jakarta.
She is mentally disturbed.
She was traumatised, always in a panic state, after seeing her housemaid friend committed suicide in Saudi Arabia.
She was back in Indonesia since the last week of February, and was treated in Kramat Jati Hospital, Jakarta, before seeing a specialist in her hometown.
Her husband, Bubun, resigned to fate upon knowing the stress state of his wife
The family had tried all means to bring her back toher normal self.
Anger overwhelmed her, she often shouted at the top of her voice, that sometimes she looked as if being possessed.
Other times, although she look normal, but her speech is still not understood.
******
Imas Masrikah, another migrant worker from Pasir Kandeul, in Sumaju village, of Nyalindung district was said to have died after 14-months working in Saudi Arabia.
PT Buana Safira in Cililitan, East Jakarta, flew her to the kingdom, and she worked for the family of Fuad Abdul Aziz.
Her family is still waiting for the body to return to Sukabumi, West Java.
Een, Imas's elder sister, a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia too, is yet to confirm the cause of the death, either due to a fall while trying to escape from her employer, or abused to death.
