Indonesian maid beheaded in Saudi Arabia

A Burmese woman is beheaded in public in Saudi Arabia in January 2015.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded an Indonesian domestic worker who knifed to death a Saudi woman described in press reports as her employer.

The interior ministry said Siti Zainab was executed after being convicted of stabbing and beating Saudi woman Noura al-Morobei to death.

The sentence was carried out on Tuesday in the Muslim holy city of Medina, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Zainab's execution brings to 60 the number of foreigners and Saudis executed this year, according to an AFP tally.

Jakarta's embassy in Riyadh declined to comment on her case.

According to Indonesian newspaper Kompas, Zainab was convicted of killing her employer in 1999, despite concerns about her mental health.

Her execution was delayed until the victim's children were old enough to decide whether the punishment should go ahead, the Saudi interior ministry said.

Indonesia four years ago announced a moratorium on sending migrant workers to the kingdom, but the Saudi newspaper Arab News reported in January that negotiations between the two countries over the recruitment of domestics had resumed.

Rights groups regularly denounce abuse and even torture of impoverished women from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal who work as maids in Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia in 2013 passed new rules that grant domestic workers one day's rest a week and guarantee the payment of their salaries.

Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Saudi Arabia has seen a surge in executions this year, compared with the 87 death sentences carried out in 2014.

Source: Agence-France Presse, April 14, 2015

Shock as Saudis behead RI woman

Siti Zaenab

Efforts by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to secure reprieves for hundreds of Indonesians on death row in overseas prisons met a sudden setback on Tuesday with the unexpected execution of a mentally ill Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia.

The Foreign Ministry announced that migrant worker Siti Zaenab Duhri Rupa was executed in the holy city of Medina.

“The Indonesian government expresses deep condolences to her loved ones and hopes she receives the best place in heaven,” the ministry said.

Jakarta has filed a protest with Riyadh for executing Siti without any prior notification.

“The government filed a protest with the Saudi Arabian government for not informing Indonesian representatives in Saudi Arabia, or the convict’s family, about the timing of the execution,” the ministry said.

Siti, a 47-year-old mother-of-two from Bangkalan in Madura Island, East Java, was arrested in October 1999 for stabbing to death her Saudi employer Nourah binti Abdullah Duhem al-Maruba.

She had gone to work in the kingdom in 1997. It was reported later that at the time of the murder Siti was mentally ill.

She was sentenced to death in January 2001, but her execution was delayed until the victim’s children were old enough to decide whether Siti could be pardoned.

In 2013, Walid bin Abdullah bin Muhsin al-Ahmadi, Nourah’s youngest son, told the court he refused to pardon Siti.

The execution was carried out despite a plea for clemency written by Jokowi to the Saudi Arabian king earlier this year.

Two of his predecessors, the late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid and president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also sent similar letters in 2000 and 2011 respectively.

“The government has done its best to prevent Siti from being executed by asking for a pardon from the victim’s family members. The government also appointed professional lawyer Khudran al-Zahrani to provide legal assistance to Siti in every trial hearing,” the ministry said.

Last month, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi directly requested Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister to approach and ask for forgiveness from the victim’s family.

“The government also offered diyat [blood money] worth Rp 2 billion [US$154,410],” it added.

According to Saudi Arabian law, people sentenced to death for murder can be reprieved from execution provided the victim’s family grants a pardon and the convict pays diyat. An edict on diyat issued by Saudi Arabian clerics set the amount at 200,000 riyals ($4,743) for a female convict and 400,000 riyals for a male.

Last year, the government paid blood money to save former migrant worker Satinah from being beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

Satinah had been convicted of killing her employer Nura al-Gharib and stealing 37,970 riyals from her home in Gaseem in July, 2007.

International rights groups have repeatedly voiced concern over the execution of convicts in Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty International (AI), for example, had urged the Saudi government to do whatever it could to halt the execution of Siti.

“We oppose the death penalty regardless of the situation,” AI said regarding Siti’s death sentence.

The government issued a moratorium on sending migrant workers to the kingdom four years ago as part of the government’s demand for the Saudi government to provide better salaries and protection for the workers.

The directive followed the case of Ruyati Satubi, a 54-year-old migrant worker who was beheaded in June 2011 for killing her Saudi employer.

The case triggered public anger after the government said it had only found out about the case after the execution.

Efforts to reprieve Indonesian convicts from execution overseas are likely to get harder as the government has been adamant about executing death-row drug convicts, many of them foreigners, as part of Indonesia’s “war on drugs”.

Six drug convicts were executed in January and 10 more, including two Australian members of the “Bali Nine” drug ring, are expected to face the firing squad soon, nine of them having been moved to Nusakambangan prison island off the coast of Cilacap in Central Java.

The series of executions has caused outrage in the international community, with the UN human rights office saying that the executions would weaken Indonesia’s position when arguing on behalf of its own nationals facing the death penalty abroad.

According to Foreign Ministry data, there are 299 Indonesians facing execution overseas, 57 percent of them for drug offenses.

Source: The Jakarta Post, April 15, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

Oklahoma | Richard Glossip on Life After Decades on Death Row

In an exclusive interview at home in Oklahoma City, Glossip describes his first days of freedom in a world he hasn’t experienced for nearly 30 years. For three decades, Richard Glossip lived on concrete. First at the Oklahoma County jail, after his arrest for murder in 1997, and then in the underground bunker housing death row inmates at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. As with the rest of his surroundings, he eventually got used to the hard, unforgiving floors, although recently he’d developed painful swelling in his legs.

Florida | 2-time Jacksonville baby abuser is set for execution

Thirty years ago while on probation for fracturing an infant’s skull, Andrew Lukehart inflicted at least five blows to the head of another baby, then concocted a story that she was abducted before eventually leading authorities to her body in a swamp area. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, the 53-year-old from Jacksonville is set to become Florida’s eighth man on death row to be executed in 2026. He will become the 36th under Gov. Ron DeSantis after a record 19 inmates were executed by the state in 2025, including another from Duval County: Michael Bell.

Can the state execute a man who already survived? | Opinion

A second execution would be an unimaginable nightmare for Tony Carruthers and a moral horror for the rest of us. Tony Carruthers is not supposed to be alive . On May 21, Tennessee set out to execute him. It failed. Carruthers survived. He is not the first person to survive an execution in the United States, and he won’t be the last. For Carruthers, the question is: Now what? Will the state seek to arrange a second execution?

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...

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

Iran executes Esma Zarei in Ardabil Prison after she gave birth in custody

Hengaw – Saturday, May 23, 2026. Iranian authorities have executed Esma Zarei, a 28-year-old Turkish woman from Parsabad in Ardabil Province, who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of her husband. She is the sixth woman executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Zarei was executed at dawn on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in Ardabil Central Prison. She had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) after being convicted of her husband’s murder.

Tennessee | Questions Raised About the Doctor Who Was Overseeing Tony Caruthers’ Execution

Mark Fowler, according to a deposition, had not placed a central line in a patient for more than a decade when he attempted to put one in Carruthers Around 11 a.m. Thursday morning in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, a medical doctor stepped in and attempted to place a central IV line in Tony Carruthers’ chest. By that point, the prison staff had spent some 30 minutes trying unsuccessfully to insert a backup IV line that would allow them to proceed with the lethal injection. According to Carruthers’ attorney Maria DeLiberato, who was in the room, after asking a staff member to attempt inserting a line through Carruthers’ jugular vein, the doctor moved on to the central line, which is identified as the last resort in Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol .

Florida executes Andrew Richard Lukehart

Jacksonville man who killed his girlfriend’s 5-month-old baby in 1996 executed 30 years later A Jacksonville man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s 5-month-old daughter and throwing her body in a pond 3 decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was scheduled to receive a 3-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of aggravated child abuse and felony murder in the death of Gabrielle Hanshaw. The baby’s mother told News4JAX she plans to attend the execution.

Florida | The Daily Routine of Death Row Inmates

The breakfast carts rattle through the concrete prison at about 5:30 am and as they approach Death Row the first sounds of morning repeat the last sounds of night - remote controlled locks clanging open and clunking closed, electric gates whirring, heavy metal doors crashing shut, voices wailing, klaxons blaring. A maximum security prison has no soft or delicate sounds. At the end of each corridor of death row cells a guard opens a heavy door of steel bars and a prison trusty pushes a breakfast cart inside. The door closes behind him and when it locks a second door opens and admits the trusty to the wing. He steers his cart along the wing stopping at each cell to pass a tray of powdered eggs and lukewarm grits through a small slot on the bars.

Iraq: German schoolgirl, 17, turned jihadi bride escapes death penalty and is jailed for six years

GERMAN Jihadi bride Linda Wenzel has been jailed for six years in Baghdad for her role as an Islamic enforcer with terror group ISIS. Wenzel, 17, who last year sobbed on TV “I have ruined my life,” could have faced the death penalty. German media reported that a German embassy representative in Iraq was in court yesterday to witness her sentencing. She received five years for joining IS and one year for entering Iraq illegally. Wenzel was found in the rubble of IS stronghold Mosul back in the summer of 2017. Charges were laid against her and three other German women captured with her. Schoolgirl Wenzel fled to Turkey then into Syria last year from her hometown of Pulsnitz in eastern Germany after being groomed online by a Chechen IS fighter who she married. He was killed in the savage fighting for Mosul while she was employed by the terror group enforcing the strict Islamic dress code on women in the city. She burst into tears after her capture and said s...

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog