Jakarta: Indonesia has lodged a protest with Saudi Arabia over the second Indonesian domestic worker executed this week, saying it was not notified in advance.
Karni Binti Medi Tarsim, who was convicted of murdering a four year old in 2012, was executed in the Saudi city of Madina on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta said late Thursday.
The execution came two days after fellow Indonesian maid Siti Zainab was put to death in the same city for murdering a Saudi woman in 1999.
“Once again the Indonesian government conveyed its regret and disappointment that Indonesian representatives in Riyadh and Jeddah were not given prior notification whatsoever of the time and place of the execution,” the ministry said.
The ministry said it summoned the Saudi ambassador late on Thursday to explain the lack of notification.
The Indonesian government has said it prevented the executions of more than 200 of its citizens sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia and other countries since 2011.
Indonesia itself still applies the death penalty. The country has executed five foreigners and an Indonesian for drug offences this year and is planning to put to death another 10 inmates.
Activists condemned the execution. “We are always opposed to the death penalty, both at home and abroad, because it’s against human rights,” said Anis Hidayah, chairwoman of Migrant Care, an non-governmental organisation that advocates the welfare of Indonesian workers abroad.
“As for migrant workers, they don’t deserve to be executed because they are victims of modern slavery and they killed because they defended themselves and were badly treated by their employers.”
Seven Indonesian migrant workers have been executed overseas in recent years, she said, with another 279 on death row, including 212 in Malaysia and 37 in Saudi Arabia.
