SAUDI ARABIA FREES 22 INDONESIAN MAIDS ON DEATH ROW

April 6, 2012: twenty two Indonesian maids on death row in Saudi Arabia were exonerated and returned to Indonesia, the Saudi English-language newspaper Arab News reported.
Some 25 maids still face the death penalty in the Kingdom after being found guilty of “either serious criminal offenses or [after being] implicated on baseless grounds,” the newspaper said.
“Six housemaids are on death row in Riyadh province alone, whereas about 19 female workers have been handed death sentences in the Western region,” Hendrar Pramutyo, spokesman of the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh, told the Arab News on 5 April. The embassy as well as the Jeddah-based consulate are working hard to secure pardons for the workers, he added.
Indonesia has banned recruitment agencies from sending maids to work in Saudi Arabia, saying that the nation’s legal system does not do enough to protect foreign workers. (Sources: www.thejakartaglobe.com, 06/04/2012)