03-03-2011, 02:28 PM
Daily Mail
An Indonesian maid faces being beheaded in Saudi Arabia after murdering the employer she claimed had tried to rape her.
Darsem binti Dawud Tawar had pleaded self-defence when she went on trial accused of the fatal attack on her Yemeni boss.
Camapaigners are now desperately trying to raise half a million dollars in blood money to save her life.
They are asking for donations on TV and social networking sites like Facebook.
Darseem was found guilty at at Riyadh court in May 2009.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kusuma Habir said the victim's family agreed to pardon her if she came up with 530,000 dollars (£340,000) - known in Arabic as 'diyat' or blood money - by July.
She said they had already collected 265,000 dollars (£170,000), through social networking site campaigns, television ads and appeals by local officials.
Human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the abuse of maids - many of them foreign nationals - in Saudi Arabia.
Alone and unprotected, a large number have complained of being abused by their employers.
Female workers are particularly susceptible to violent physical attacks and rapes.
But many travel to the desert kingdom every year as work and wages are more plentiful than there than in their home countries.
beheading of drug dealer----->
An Indonesian maid faces being beheaded in Saudi Arabia after murdering the employer she claimed had tried to rape her.
Darsem binti Dawud Tawar had pleaded self-defence when she went on trial accused of the fatal attack on her Yemeni boss.
Camapaigners are now desperately trying to raise half a million dollars in blood money to save her life.
They are asking for donations on TV and social networking sites like Facebook.
Darseem was found guilty at at Riyadh court in May 2009.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kusuma Habir said the victim's family agreed to pardon her if she came up with 530,000 dollars (£340,000) - known in Arabic as 'diyat' or blood money - by July.
She said they had already collected 265,000 dollars (£170,000), through social networking site campaigns, television ads and appeals by local officials.
Human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the abuse of maids - many of them foreign nationals - in Saudi Arabia.
Alone and unprotected, a large number have complained of being abused by their employers.
Female workers are particularly susceptible to violent physical attacks and rapes.
But many travel to the desert kingdom every year as work and wages are more plentiful than there than in their home countries.
beheading of drug dealer----->