Saudi Arabia has executed a second Indonesian maid despite
protests from Jakarta, which is itself facing fierce criticism for its failure
to heed calls for clemency for a number of foreigners on death row.
The Indonesian government summoned the Saudi ambassador to
the foreign ministry on Thursday after learning that 37-year-old Karni Bt. Medi
Tarsim had been beheaded, without official warning.
Karni was sentenced to death in March 2013 for killing her
employer's four-year-old child. She was the second Indonesian domestic worker
executed by the Saudis this week, following the death of Siti Zaenab Bt. Duhri
Rupa on Tuesday -- the execution again carried out with Indonesian officials
receiving no prior warning.
"That is our main issue. It's not that suddenly there
was an execution. We didn't know when it would take place. Still, we took over
a hundred steps to try to free (Siti) from execution," said Arrmanatha
Nasir, spokesman for Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Siti, 47, was convicted of killing her employer's wife in
1999, but the death penalty was delayed until the youngest of the victim's sons
reached puberty and was old enough to consider requesting her pardon. He
didn't.
Rights groups say they suspect Siti was mentally ill and cast
aspersions on claims she had confessed to the crime. Amnesty International also
said reports suggested she had been abused while working in the victim's home.
"Imposing the death penalty and executing someone with a
suspected mental illness smacks of a basic lack of humanity," said Philip
Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty
International.
Indonesia's efforts to save its own citizens does not sit well
with advocates who are seeking the same mercy for foreigners languishing on
Indonesia's death row.
Two of the most high profile cases are Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran, Australians convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin from Bali to
Australia in 2005.
Friday marks the 10-year anniversary of their arrest with
seven other people -- members of the so-called "Bali Nine" -- who are
currently serving lengthy sentences in Indonesian prisons.
As the alleged ringleaders, Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced
to death, and denied clemency from President Jokowi Widodo, a decision being
challenged through the country's Constitutional Court.
"If Indonesia wants to effectively protect Indonesians
from the death penalty abroad, Indonesia should also abolish the death penalty
here," said Todung Mulya Lubis, one of the men's lawyers.
Chan, 31, and Sukumaran -- who also turns 34 on Friday -- are
currently incarcerated on Nusakambangan Island in preparation for their
execution but no date has been set.
Human Rights Watch called on Widodo to suspend all planned
executions in Indonesia -- as the previous government did between 2008 and
2013. No executions were carried out in 2014, but earlier this year, six people
-- including five foreigners -- faced the firing squad.
"The executions of two Indonesian citizens in Saudi
Arabia in a single week should be a turning point on the subject of death
penalty in Indonesia," said Andreas Harsono, the Indonesian researcher for
Human Rights Watch. "Please stop the lecture of sovereignty. It is so old
fashioned."
Before news of the second execution emerged on Thursday, the
Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press briefing to denounce the
Saudi action.
When asked whether Jakarta's complaints smacked of hypocrisy,
given the country's refusal to spare foreigners on death row, spokesman
Arrmanatha Nasir said: "If you read our constitution, it is the job, the
role of the government to protect its citizens, right? So it's not a double
standard."
"On the issue of death penalty, we can have a long
debate whether it is against human rights or it is morally wrong or right.
That's a whole other discussion, that's a whole other argument, but what we're
saying now here is we are implementing our laws and we are adhering to our
constitution that we have to protect our citizens abroad."
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