T

he results of an autopsy carried out by Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital concluded that Indonesian migrant worker Ernawati, whose remains were sent home from Saudi Arabia last month, died of blunt force trauma.

The result contradicts the previous examination by the Saudi government, which the Foreign Ministry has always referred to in explaining the cause of Ernawati’s death.

“There are bruises on her face, chest, both arms and knees because of violence by a blunt object. These bruises occurred before the person died,” was reported in the result of the autopsy on Ernawati, which was obtained by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“There was swelling and bleeding in the lungs, part of which had recovered. Bruises on the chest were the result of violence by a blunt object causing bleeding in lung tissue that led to her death,” the result said.

The result was signed by forensic doctors Zulhasmar Syamsul and Abdul Mun’Im Idries. Zulhasmar carried out the autopsy.

The result, however, did not mention anything about an accumulation of anticoagulant warfarin – generally used in rodent pesticides – in Ernawati’s organs, as the Foreign Ministry and the Saudi government had earlier claimed.

Ernawati died on Feb. 10, 10 days after her elder sister Yenni Larasati filed a report with the ministry alleging that Ernawati sustained injuries from physical abuse at both the hands of her employer and lover. Yenni said Ernawati was forced to kneel while her employer often slapped, punched, kicked, threw things at her or whipped her with a hose.

In a letter Indonesian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Gatot Abdullah Mansyur sent in February to the foreign minister, the Manpower and Transmigration Minister and the head of the National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) said that the Al-Muntazah police in Hail had received a report about an Indonesian migrant worker who was being treated for swallowing rat poison.

MigrantCARE policy researcher Wahyu Soesilo said he would file a complaint with the National Ombudsman Commission against the ministry for giving “false information”, citing two different autopsy results.

He said he had sent copies of the latest result to Ernawati’s family and the ministry.

Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said he did not know if the ministry had received the copy of the results or not.

“We will have to see the result first and then we will pass this information on to the Indonesian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to forward it to the local authorities,” he told the Post.

University of Indonesia international law expert Hikmahanto Juwana earlier said the government should make its case and demand that Saudi Arabian authorities begin an investigation if the second autopsy concluded that there were indications of physical abuse.