Indonesia slams Saudi Arabia's execution of maid

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Indonesia criticised Saudi Arabia on Sunday for executing an Indonesian maid without notifying officials from her home country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene expressed regret that Saudi Arabia had not contacted Indonesia before beheading Ruyati binti Sapubi with a sword. He said the government would summon the Saudi ambassador to convey a protest.

Ruyati was arrested in January last year and was sentenced to death by a Saudi court after confessing that she had murdered her employer's wife. She was reportedly beheaded on Saturday in Mecca.

"Without prejudicing Saudi Arabia's legal system, the Indonesian government criticized the execution of Ruyati without informing our embassy in Riyadh," Tene said. He said the execution ignored the right of foreign prisoners to receive consular assistance.

Ruyati is the second Indonesian maid to be executed in Saudi Arabia since 2008. Another is still on death row.

Rights activists accused the government of failing to protect its citizens abroad. "It is a slap to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," said Poengky Indarty of Impasial, a human rights group.

"Ruyati's death constitutes his failure to protect the rights of Indonesian workers abroad." More than 1 million Indonesians are employed in Saudi Arabia, mostly as domestic workers.