Jakarta to appeal woman’s death sentence
Indonesian citizen sentenced to death by Penang High Court for drug trafficking.
JAKARTA: The Indonesia Foreign Ministry plans to submit an appeal to the Penang High Court regarding Indonesian migrant worker Rita Krisdianti, who was sentenced to death on Monday for drug smuggling.
The Jakarta Post quoted Taufiq Rodhi, general consul at the Indonesian Consulate General in Penang, as saying Indonesian officials had instructed a Malaysian lawyer to submit an appeal.
Rita was sentenced to death under Section 39B of Malaysia’s 1952 Dangerous Drugs Act, following her arrest on July 10, 2013, when Malaysian authorities at Penang’s Bayan Lepas Airport found over 4 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine in her bag.
She claimed she did not know about the meth, saying the bag belonged to a fellow Indonesian who had managed her travel arrangements from Hong Kong to Penang, via Bangkok and New Delhi, the Jakarta Post reported.
Rita’s family had attended the hearing with the Consulate General in Penang, Taufiq said. Indonesian NGOs such as Migrant Care have been given permission to monitor the development of the case.
Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir asserted that officials would keep pushing and monitoring the appeal process.
According to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, there are currently 154 Indonesian convicts on death row in Malaysia, with 102 citizens — 66 per cent — involved in drug cases.
Workers in Indonesia have begun to show their solidarity with Rita by changing their display pictures on Facebook. The hashtag #SaveRitaKrisdianti has also been widely used, the Jakarta Post reported.
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Demonstrations have taken place outside the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta, demanding the release of Rita and safety for other Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty.