W

ednesday is the day that Dawud Tawar, the father of Darsem — an Indonesian maid who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia — and her only son, Sapii, 5, have been waiting for.

Dawud, 50, says he was relieved that his daughter was free and coming home.

He says he had not prepared anything special for Darsem’s homecoming except himself, his wife and Darsem’s only son, who would travel from their home in Turungtum, Subang regency, West Java, to the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta.

“I feel so relieved after hearing the news that she is coming home,” Dawud told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

“I miss her so much. How can I not miss her? I haven’t seen her for five years now. Her son cried all day yesterday asking for his mother to get home immediately.”

Dawud said the Foreign Ministry’s director for legal aid and protection of Indonesian nationals overseas, Tatang Budie Utama Razak, called him directly, assuring him that ministry staff would pick up his family to meet Darsem at the ministry on Wednesday.

He said that though Darsem was free, Tatang could not put her on the phone due to Saudi Arabian regulations.

“I asked to speak to my daughter, but he said [Saudi Arabia] did not allow that,” said Dawud.

Darsem was sentenced to death on May 6, 2009, by a Riyadh court for killing her Yemeni employer, although she told the court it was self-defense because he was trying to rape her.

On Jan. 7, the victim’s family forgave Darsem, 25, but required her to pay Rp 4.7 billion (US$549,900) in blood money (diyat) within six months.

Darsem’s life was spared after the government paid the blood money to the victim’s family on June 25, although the deadline was actually July 7.

The ministry will return her to her family on Wednesday.

“We have successfully freed [Darsem] from qisas [the law of an eye for an eye] after paying diyat and from public legal prosecution after making an appeal,” ministry spokesman Michael Tene told the Post.

“[Darsem] will depart [from Saudi Arabia] at dawn Jakarta time and will meet her family at the ministry at 1:30 p.m. for a hand-over ceremony.”

He said the Saudi Arabian authorities would transfer Darsem to officials from the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh at the airport.

Michael added that the government had completed its administrative issues regarding Darsem, including her exit permit and her right to salary.

On March 17, Jakarta-based PT Titian Hidup Langgeng, the recruitment agency that sent Darsem to Saudi Arabia in 2006, paid Darsem’s 18-month salary of Rp 25 million that her employer had defaulted, the media reported.

Besides Darsem, 25 other Indonesian maids face death sentences for killing their employers.

Many Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are physically abused, raped, killed or do not receive their rights — including salary — from their employers.

The number of Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia is estimated at 1.5 million and 2 million, respectively.