‘Mentally Ill’ Indonesian Worker Beheaded in Saudi Arabia

Siti Zaenab binti Duhri Rupa was executed on Tuesday after being on death row for over 15 years

Jakarta Globe, Ezra Sihite, Apr 15, 2015

An Indonesian migrant worker prepared to be sent to Saudi Arabia, covers her
face during an inspection by the police in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, in this
 file photo taken on June 22, 2011. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government, saying it has done its utmost to prevent the execution of a possibly mentally ill Indonesian woman in Saudi Arabia, regrets the fact that the decapitation went ahead on Tuesday, without her family being notified in advance.

Siti Zaenab binti Duhri Rupa was executed after being on death row for over 15 years for killing her boss, after allegedly facing abuse.

“We have done everything we can to free Siti Zaenab,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters on Tuesday.

Arrmanatha said that Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had asked the family of the killed woman to forgive the Indonesian worker, and a press release on the ministry’s website said that President Joko Widodo as well as his predecessors Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Abdurrahman Wahid had sent letters to the Saudi king to request clemency.

In Saudi Arabia, a death sentence can be commuted if the family of the victim forgives his or her murderer.

Siti Zaenab, born in Madura in 1968, was sentenced to death in 1999.

Amnesty International said in a press release that Siti Zaenab was reported to have stabbed her employer 18 times after allegedly being mistreated by the employer’s son. She “confessed” to the act during interrogation, but reports suggest “police suspected that she suffered from mental illness at the time,” Amnesty said.

“Imposing the death penalty and executing someone with a suspected mental illness smacks of a basic lack of humanity,” Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program director, said in the press release. “This practice has been widely condemned on the world stage and Saudi Arabia should take this opportunity to reconsider its stance on the death penalty.”

Amnesty says Saudi Arabia ranks among the top five executioners in the world, having executed at least 60 people so far this year, most of them by beheading. The country carried out 90 executions last year.

“Whatever the misguided purpose behind Saudi Arabia’s shocking spike in executions so far this year, it should draw international condemnation. The Kingdom’s authorities must halt this execution spree and establish an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty,” Luther said.

Joko’s government itself has come under fire in recent months for resuming executions of drug convicts on death row, most of them foreign nationals.

Mustafa Ibrahim Al-Mubarak, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Indonesia, said there might have been a miscommunication between his government and the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh.

“They knew about the [upcoming] execution, but the Saudi Arabian government might have not reminded them of the execution date,” said Al-Mubarak. “I will check what went wrong. I will be in touch with my government to get their explanation.”

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