Fury as Saudi Arabia executes Indonesian maid Tuti Tursilawati without warning
- Tuti Tursilawati said she was defending herself from being raped by her boss when she killed him in 2010
- President Joko Widodo files a complaint with Saudi foreign minister after Tursilawati’s unexpected execution
Indonesia has responded with outrage after Saudi Arabia executed an Indonesian domestic worker who was convicted of killing her Saudi employer – even though the maid said she had been defending herself from being raped.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Wednesday that he had called the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Jubeir, to file a complaint and demand to know why Indonesia had not been notified that Tuti Tursilawati was to be executed Monday.
In a statement, Widodo said he had raised the issues surrounding Tursilawati’s case when Jubeir visited Indonesia last week and that the case had been brought up repeatedly with other Saudi officials, including King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director of the Indonesian foreign ministry’s citizens protection department, told reporters on Tuesday the move was “regrettable”.
“The execution of Tuti Tursilawati was done without notification to our representatives, either in Riyadh or Jeddah,” he said at a press conference.
