INDONESIA: MINISTRY PROVIDES LEGAL AID FOR INDONESIAN ON DEATH ROW IN ETHIOPIA

March 11, 2025:

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry has vowed to provide legal aid to Linda Yuliana, an Indonesian citizen facing the death penalty in Ethiopia after being convicted in a drug smuggling case.
The ministry’s citizen protection director, Judha Nugraha, said the Indonesian Embassy in Ethiopia had been providing consular support for Linda during her trial. “We are also providing legal assistance to ensure that she fully receives her rights according to the local legal system,” he said in a press briefing in Jakarta on March 6, 2025.
Linda, a resident of Majalengka regency in West Java, was arrested at
Bole International Airport in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in June 2024 for allegedly smuggling cocaine. Her mother, Dede Sumiati, 66, said her daughter went to Ethiopia in June after receiving a job offer as a gold smelting worker. But she did not get the job after spending a week in the African country.
Linda instead was asked to bring a bag of chocolate to Laos by an unidentied person she met at the hotel where she was staying.
Unaware of what was actually in the bag, she went to the airport where authorities checked her bag before she boarded the flight and found a packet of drugs inside.
“Linda called us crying, saying that she did not know anything and felt that she was set up. I believe my daughter is innocent,” Dede said, as quoted by Antara.
Majalengka regent Eman Suherman said on March 5 that the regency administration also worked hard to ensure Linda had the proper legal assistance during the legal proceedings in Ethiopia.
According to the Foreign Ministry, at least 157 living Indonesian citizens have been sentenced to death abroad for various reasons, most in drug smuggling cases.