Government Agrees to Pay Diyat for Satinah: Hatta

Bangkalan, E Java (Antara) - The government had agreed to pay the diyat (blood money) for the release of migrant worker Satinah from execution in Saudi Arabia, a senior minister said. Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for economic affairs, said here on Wednesday evening the funds had already been made available. "The government was serious in its effort to save its citizen who was in distress abroad. The funds had been made available. We met what they had demanded," he said. Hatta added that the diyat will be paid in installments based on the agreement made by the Indonesian and Saudi governments. "We will pay a certain sum in advance and the rest will be paid in installments. However, I forget what the amount was," he said. Hatta said attention was not only paid to Satinah, but also to other citizens facing troubles abroad, including Siti Zaenab from Bangkalan on Madura island who was also facing a death penalty in Saudi Arabia in connection with a murder case. "What was clear was that all Indonesian citizens facing problems abroad received government's attention," he said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he said, had also written a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia to ask for a pardon for the citizens who had issues there. Satinah, 40, from Ungaran, Central Java, was sentenced to death in 2010 after being convicted of murdering her female employer in early 2009 and would be executed on April 3, unless the requested diyat of 7.5 million riyal, which is equal to Rp21 billion, was paid. Following efforts by the Indonesian representative office in Saudi Arabia, the victim's family agreed to pardon Satinah upon condition that she paid compensation. Satinah is one of more than one hundred Indonesian migrant workers facing a death penalty abroad. (*) Reporting by Abd Aziz