Indonesia maid who escaped death sentence set to leave Saudi

An Indonesian women who have previously been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for allegedly practicing witchcraft is set to fly home, after efforts made by Jakarta to have her set free, local daily Arab News reported on Wednesday.

Rika Mustikawati, a domestic helper who was sentenced to death in 2012 in the southwestern province of Asir, had been charged by authorities for practicing witchcraft on her employer’s wife.

In 2012, several months after Mustikawati’s imprisonment, the Indonesian Consulate’s legal team made efforts to have her released.

The appeals court decided to annul her death sentence and recommended a hearing with a new judge. The new trial resulted in the maid’s sentence being commuted from capital punishment to a three-year-jail terms.

“The case is closed now; she is relieved and will fly home,” Syarif Shahab, information secretary at the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah, told Arab News on Tuesday.

Mustikawati is one of 68 Indonesian workers since 2011 who has been spared a death sentence after intervention from Jakarta – and one of 12 so far this year.

24 Indonesian citizens are currently in prison facing the death sentence – 12 for charges of murder, nine for adultery and three for practicing black magic, according to an Indonesian foreign ministry statement.