Saudi tight-lipped over death penalty for Indonesian workers

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa says the government of Saudi Arabia had remained silent on the fate of two Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty there.

Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent a letter to Saudi authorities, requesting an alternative solution for the 2 migrant workers.

"We have not received a reply yet," Marty said Thursday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Marty added that the government would do everything it could to get the 2 workers home. He added that a team led by former foreign minister Alwi Shihab had also been deployed to Saudi Arabia, in hope of being able to negotiate with Arab authorities.

House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said the House would assist the government in dealing with the Arab authorities by through negotiations with the Arab government and parliament.

"Yesterday, it was decided at a meeting that we should assist the government in efforts to save these workers lives," he said.

At present, 2 Indonesian workers - Tuti Tursilawati of Majalengka, West Java, and Satinah binti Jumadi of Ungaran, Central Java - have been sentenced to death after found guilty over murder charges.

Source: Jakarta Post, October 14, 2011

Another RI migrant may face beheading in Saudi

An NGO says another Indonesian migrant worker, Tuti Tursilawati, has been sentenced to death by beheading after she was found guilty of murder by Saudi Arabian authorities.

“Tuti beat her employer to death after she was frequently abused. She then ran away, but was arrested by local authorities and is now in prison in Thaif, awaiting execution,” Migrant Care coordinator Wahyu Susilo said Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

At present, five Indonesian migrant workers are on death row in Saudi Arabia after efforts to commute their death sentences failed, Wahyu added.

The five are Tuti Tursilawati, Tursinah, Siti Zaenab, Aminah and Darmawati.

Wahyu urged the Indonesian government to use the current momentum to ask the Saudi government to forgive Tuti and other Indonesian inmates on death row. He added that Indonesia should utilize support from the international community in efforts to see this request fulfilled.

The United Nations recently criticized Saudi Arabia for continuing to accommodate the death penalty in its legal system and furthermore for still implementing beheading as its method.

Many countries have condemned beheading as being a medieval practice that has long been abandoned by many countries.

Source: The Jakarta Post, October 13, 2011

Six RI workers face execution in Saudi Arabia

JAKARTA: Tuti Tursilawati and Satinah, the migrant workers whose cases have grabbed media attention recently, were not the only workers facing death in Saudi Arabia, a member of a House of Representatives team on migrant workers says.

“There are six of them,” Chusnunia said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Thursday.

Tuti, a resident of Majalengka, West Java, was sentenced to death by a Saudi court after she was found guilty of murdering her employer, Suud Malhaq Al Utibi, last year. Satinah was accused of killing her employer and sentenced to death in March.

Chusnunia said that information about the total number of migrant workers on Saudi Arabia’s death row resulted from a meeting between the House team and the government’s task force on migrant workers.

She added that her institution was now waiting for details of the four migrant workers.

The government must work harder to save them, she said.

Source: The Jakarta Post, October 14

Related articles:

Death Penalty News: Indonesia Stops Sending Maids to Saudi Arabia

Jun 23, 2011

The announcement comes in the wake of a national outcry in Indonesia over the surprise execution of Ruyati binti Sapubi, an Indonesian maid who was convicted of murdering her Saudi employer. Indonesian diplomats said ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: Sri Lankan Maids Become Victims in Saudi ...

Nov 17, 2010

But that's exactly what Rizana Fathima Nafeek, who moved to Riyadh from Sri Lanka to work as a maid, has endured since 2005. Nafeek, now 22, has spent the past half-decade in a Riyadh prison facing a death sentence in a ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: Filipino worker escapes death in Saudi Arabia

Oct 12, 2011

An Indonesian maid convicted of murder in Saudi Arabia has been spared execution by beheading after the Indonesian government paid Rp 4.6 billion ($534000) in “blood money." Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene . ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: Manila prepares 'blood money' policy for death ...

Sep 12, 2011

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Comments

Will the US Supreme Court end nitrogen gas executions?

When President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, he directed his administration to “ restor[e] the death penalty .” His embrace of capital punishment helped fuel a surge in executions at the state level last year, as I previously reported , and led the Justice Department to produce a report on “strengthening” the federal death penalty, which was released late last month. In the report, the Justice Department defended the use of pentobarbital – a powerful sedative – for lethal injections, criticizing the Biden administration’s determination that it may cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.” Nevertheless, citing ongoing legal challenges to pentobarbital use and related problems obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections, the DOJ recommended expanding the list of federal execution methods by adding firing squads, electrocution, and lethal gas.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

South Dakota | Latest appeal from state's lone death row inmate denied

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has rejected the latest appeal from Briley Piper, the only person on death row in South Dakota. In March 2000, Briley Piper, along with co-defendants Elijah Page and Darrell Hoadley, conspired to burglarize the Lawrence County home of 19-year-old Chester Poage before abducting and murdering him by beating, stabbing, and stoning in a remote area. Piper was subsequently arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death, while his accomplices received either a death sentence—carried out against Page in 2007—or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

South Carolina | Inmate who believes he’s died repeatedly can’t be executed, judge rules

SPARTANBURG — A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in Greenville County in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled. John Richard Wood is the first condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The seven executions since then include three men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November. Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

American Fugitive Flees to Italy hoping to Escape the Death Penalty

American Murder Suspect Cut Off His Ankle Bracelet and Fled to Italy to Escape the Death Penalty Lee Mongerson Gilley Flew From Houston to Milan on Two False Identities. He Was Caught the Moment He Landed. It reads like the opening of a thriller. A man under electronic surveillance in Houston, suspected of killing his pregnant wife, cuts off his ankle bracelet, boards a flight to Canada under a false identity, transfers to a second flight to Italy under a second false identity, and lands at Milan Malpensa with a single objective: to place himself beyond the reach of Texas justice and its death penalty. The plan failed at the first step on Italian soil. Lee Mongerson Gilley, 39, an American software engineer wanted in the United States on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife in October 2024, was identified and detained the moment he arrived at Malpensa. He had cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet in Houston, flown first to Canada using one set of false documents, and then to Italy u...

Former FedEx driver sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl after delivery at her Texas home

DALLAS (AP) — A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift. Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner's punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand's last moments from inside his delivery van. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena's body was found two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers. The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog