01 April 2019 :
On 9 May 2018, Masamah binti Raswa Sanusi, a house worker who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia in 2009 for killing the baby of her employers, but was pardoned by them, has hosted the couple in her home in Indonesia.
Masamah, who was released from prison in January 2018, returned to home country in March after she was allowed to leave by the Saudi authorities. G haleb Bin Nasser Al Balawi and his wife, from Tabuk, were invited by the Indonesian government to visit the country in recognition of their decision to pardon their employee, Masamah, even though she was convicted by a court of killing their 11-month daughter.
The worker had insisted that she was innocent and that her fingerprints on the baby’s face, which were used as evidence to convict her, were after she tried to revive her after she found her unconscious. She was sentenced to five years in 2014, but the prosecutor appealed the ruling and a judge sentenced her to death in 2016. She challenged the death sentence and as she was put on trial in March 2017, Al Balawi told the court that he pardoned her.
Under Saudi laws, the next of kin to the victim can pardon the killer and receive blood money. Al Balawi said that although they received several offers to forgive Masamah, his family rejected them and pardoned her without asking for anything in return. All we wanted was God’s mercy, he said in Jakarta during a meeting with the Saudi ambassador, Osama Bin Mohammad Al Shuaibi.
