“An official petition has been submitted to the Saudi government to spare Darsem binti Daud, 25, found guilty by a Riyadh court of murdering her employer,” said Wishnu Krishnamurthi, a spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh on Wednesday.
“Darsem was sentenced to death in 2009 for murdering her Yemeni employer in what she called an act of self-defense,” Krishnamurthi said, while thanking Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman and the victim's family for their help and forgiveness.
He said the victim's family had agreed to spare her if she came up with SR2 million in blood money, or “diyat” in Arabic.
Darsem, who hails from a very poor family in Subang, West Java, is currently languishing in Riyadh's Malaz prison.
The maid, a divorcee with one child, came to the Kingdom in 2006. The death sentence was handed down to Darsem despite her plea that the murder was an act of self-defense when her employer tried to rape her.
According to a report, the Indonesian government has been given six months to collect the blood money to be paid to the victim's family. But, an extension can be requested.
In Jakarta, Kusuma Habir, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Foreign ministry, said on Tuesday an appeal against the sentence has been lodged through the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh and Darsem's lawyer.
“We hope she could be freed or at least get a lower sentence,” said the spokeswoman, adding that Darsem could escape the sentence if she receives a pardon from the family.
The family forgave her in January on the condition that she pays the compensation, said Habir. The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that it has managed to collect $261,000 through donations to help spare the maid from execution.
In January 2008, Indonesian worker Yanti Sukardi was executed after she was convicted of suffocating her employer with a pillow and then stealing her jewelry.
