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Saudi Arabia: Murder charges unproven, three RI maids freed

Three Indonesian maids who faced the death penalty for murder allegations are scheduled to return home in the next several days from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi prosecutors could not prove the charges and the maids' employers had accepted their apologies, Jumhur Hidayat, the head of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), said as reported by antaranews.com reported.

The women, housemaids all, were identified as Bayanah binti Banhawi, Jamilah Binti Abidin Rofi'i and Neneng Sunengsih binti Mamih.

Bayanah, 29, left for Riyadh on Jan.29, 2006. After two months, she was imprisoned on allegations that she murdered her employer’s four-year-old son.

Jamilah was accused of murdering her 80-year-old employer, while Neneng, 34, was charged with murdering her employer’s four-month-old baby.

The women will be returned home with the aid of the Foreign Ministry and the Task Force for Indonesian Migrant Workers who Face Death Penalty.

Source: The Jakarta Post, December 27, 2011

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