REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- A legislator has urged the Foreign Affairs Ministry to collect data on the country's citizens implicated in legal cases in Saudi Arabia.

Ahmad Zainuddin, a member of Commission I, which oversees foreign affairs, of the House of Representatives (DPR), pushed for this here on Wednesday following Saudi's execution of Indonesian death row convict Siti Zaenab binti Duhri on Tuesday (14/4).

"No prior notification was given before Duhri's execution. There should not be a repeat of such a case. I regret the step taken by the Saudi government to execute her without notifying the Indonesian government first," he said.

Zainuddin, who is also a member of the Indonesian migrant workers supervisory team of the DPR, also questioned whether the Indonesian government had been negligent since 1999 with regard to requesting for a pardon and offering monetary compensation to the heir of the victim.

Duhri, an Indonesian migrant worker employed in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to death after a court found her guilty of murdering the wife of her employer in 1999.

She had been imprisoned in a Medina jail since October 5, 1999. After a series of court proceedings, the Medina Court sentenced her to death on January 8, 2001.

According to a Saudi Arabian law, only the heir of the victim can pardon the guilty.

The execution was put on hold pending the only son of the victim becoming an adult at the age of 13 and making a decision.

In 2013, after he was declared an adult, the victim's son refused to pardon Duhri, demanding that she be executed.

Zainuddin asked the Foreign Affairs Ministry to gather data on a number of Indonesians facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia, including data on the status of their legal processes and on what defense measures the government is taking.

"I am afraid many such cases might have taken place in the past, but only Duhri's case was exposed," the lawmaker pointed out.

Zainuddin supported the Indonesian government in protesting the Saudi Kingdom against the way it executed Duhri, where the Indonesian representative in Riyadh was not notified ahead of the execution.

"The news that Duhri has been executed was astonishing and hurt our feelings," he remarked.

He added that the implementation of the death penalty in crime-related cases by the Saudi government should be respected, but Indonesians who were involved in the crime needed to be provided with the chance to defend themselves.

The Indonesian Consulate General in Jidda received information that Siti Zaenab binti Duhri Rupa was executed at 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a press statement.

The Indonesian government has expressed its deepest condolences to the bereaved family and grieving relatives of Duhri.

Indonesia has also conveyed its protest to the Saudi government for failing to notify any Indonesian representative in Saudi Arabia or Duhri's family on its plan or date of the execution.

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