Indonesia protests to Saudi over maid beheading

Indonesia will lodge a strong protest with Saudi Arabia over the beheading of an Indonesian maid convicted of murdering her Saudi employer, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Monday. Riyadh carried out the execution by sword without giving Indonesia prior notice, he told reporters after a meeting with lawmakers. "We cannot accept it and will file a strong protest to the Saudi government," he said. The woman, Ruyati binti Sapubi, was found guilty of killing Saudi woman Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid by striking her repeatedly on the head with a meat cleaver and stabbing her in the neck. The migrant worker had been subjected to constant verbal abuse and refused permission to leave the kingdom, according to a report by the Indonesian consulate general in Jeddah quoted by the Jakarta Globe newspaper. Sapubi was "upset because she was frequently yelled at and disappointed because her employer refused to let her return home," it said. Around 70 percent of the 1.2 million Indonesians working in Saudi Arabia are domestic helpers, according to officials. The beheading brought the number of executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom this year to 28, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports. Indonesians were outraged in April when a Saudi court overturned the conviction of a Saudi woman who had been jailed for three years for allegedly torturing her Indonesian maid. Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa, 23, claimed her employer beat her causing internal bleeding and broken bones, scalded her head with an iron and slashed her with scissors, leaving her horribly disfigured and traumatised. In November last year the beaten body of another Indonesian maid, Kikim Komalasari, 36, was found near Abha. Her two employers were arrested in that case. Labour activists and rights groups have said the latest incidents highlight the paucity of protection for millions of mostly Asian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. London-based watchdog Amnesty International this month called on Saudi Arabia to stop applying the death penalty, saying there had been a significant rise in the number of executions carried out over the past six weeks.