SBY Meets With Families of Migrant Workers Facing Death Sentences Overseas

Jakarta Globe, Mar 30, 2014

President Yudhoyono meets with the families of migrant workers on death

row in Central Java on March 30, 2014. (Photo courtesy of Twitter/@sbyudhoyono)

Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday met with families of Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty abroad, in the wake of recently announced negotiations to save the life of a worker who admitted to killing her Saudi employer — the latest in a string of high-profile cases involving Indonesian migrants.

“As you know, the government is making serious efforts to seek forgiveness from Saudi Arabia and the victim’s family,” Yudhoyono said at the meeting in Hotel Gumaya, in Semarang, Central Java, as quoted by news portal Detik.com.

Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, 41, of Ungaran, Central Java, was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after admitting to slaying former employer Nura in 2007 and fleeing with 37,970 riyal ($10,125). She is scheduled for execution on April 4 if the Indonesian government cannot collect the proper sum of diyat, or blood money, by that date.

The al-Garib family initially requested 10 million riyal in 2011, but the Indonesian government managed to negotiate the amount to 7 million — with 5 million to be paid now and another two due in the next to years.

The families of Siti Zaenab, Tuti Tursilawati and Karni, all awaiting execution in Saudi prison, were also in attendance at the meeting, as were Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi, Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh, presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha and foreign affairs advisor Daniel Sparingga.

On Friday, Yudhoyono sent an envoy to Saudi Arabia to meet with the al-Garib family before the execution deadline: Head of the task force on migrant worker protection (Satgas TKI) Maftuh Basyuni, accompanied by a team of Foreign Ministry and Manpower Ministry staffers. They delivered the 5 million riyal, according to a report published on the Cabinet Secretary’s official website, setkab.go.id.

Yudhoyono said that 246 Indonesian migrant workers were facing the death penalty abroad, but that 176 had been freed during his time in office.

“We have freed 176 people from death sentences,” he said, according to news portal Detik.com. “That is not a small number considering how hard it is to ask forgiveness for even one person.”

He said that the central government sought clemency for Indonesians facing foreign death sentences as a matter of principle rather than as the result of political pressure.

Satinah’s brother, Paeri Al Fery, expressed gratitude for Yudhoyono’s actions.

“Thank you for your help, mister President,” Paeri said. “Thank you for coming to Semarang. Please pray for us.”

Indonesian migrant workers wait to exit a boat at North Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok
 port in this file photo. The workers were sent home from Saudi Arabia. (JG Photo/
Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

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