REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - An Indonesian minister said the amount of blood money, or diyat in Arabic, that had been collected to save a migrant worker named Satinah from an execution in Saudi Arabia had reached 11 billion IDR.
"But we still need ten more billion rupiah," Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar said on Wednesday, in response to the Satinah's death case.
The Indonesian government was still negotiating the diyat payment with the family of Satinah's employer, Nura al-Gharib, Linda said.
In connection with the Satinah case, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conducted and was the chairman of a limited meeting on Wednesday to discuss matters related to Indonesian migrant workers. The head of state said he could understand the peoples reaction when hearing about a migrant worker on the death row.
Satinah (40 years) is on the brink of execution after the Saudi Arabian courts found her guilty of killing her employer Nura al-Gharib in the Gaseem area in early 2009 and stealing her employers money. She has been jailed since 2009 and will be executed on April 3, 2014, unless the requested diyat of 7.5 millionriyal, which is equal to about Rp21 billion, can be paid.
The Satinah case had triggered a public solidarity movement. Indonesian rock artist Melanie Subono, for instance, had appealed to the public to donate money for the diyat payment.