(MENAFN - Arab News) Indonesia has stepped up efforts to save the lives of five housemaids currently on death row in Saudi Arabia.
The five cases are critical because the workers involved in these cases have exhausted all legal options following their convictions by Saudi courts on different criminal charges.
The workers are now seeking clemency from the victims' families and from the Saudi government.
Shabda Thian, a spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy, said here yesterday that "most of the prisoners had been convicted for petty crimes and many of them had completed their sentences awaiting repatriation back home to Jakarta after fulfilling related obligations."
Thian added: "We are talking to the families of the victims and offering blood money, while the Saudi government agencies have extended all possible support to settle the cases."
The cases emerged after the General Court in Dammam exonerated Indonesian maid Nurqoyah Bint Marsan Dasan Nuriya, 41, of murder charges last week, which paved the way for her release. But the good news for Nuriya was preceded by an episode in which Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek, 24, was executed a few weeks before despite a desperate appeal for clemency.
Thian noted that the Indonesian diplomatic missions managed to solve 14 similar cases last year in which workers were handed down death penalty.
Source: MENAFN.com, Feb. 17, 2013