By Ainur Rohmah and Rochimawati
JAKARTA
"She looked well-fed, healthy, and fresh," says Indonesian national Darpin of his wife, whom he recently travelled to visit in Saudi Arabia.
He told The Anadolu Agency on Friday that he'd planned the trip for weeks, after prison officials had granted him permission to see 38-year-old Karni Bt. Medi Tarsim.
The two had been married for 21 years, and had three children - Desi Sri Rahayu, Sukron Hidayat, and Kadarisman - who Darpin had looked after while his wife worked in the Kingdom.
"I never imagined it would be our last meeting," Darpin - who like many Indonesians uses only one name - told AA from his Central Java home.
Karni was executed Thursday morning - just two days after fellow Indonesian migrant worker Siti Zaenab met the same fate.
She was marched from her cell and beheaded at 10 a.m. (0800GMT), after being sentenced to death by the Court of Yanbu in 2013 for murdering her employer's 4-year-old child, Tala Al Shehri, in 2012.
But as was the case with Zaenab, her family was only informed much later.
Zaenab's family told AA Wednesday that they had no knowledge of her death until they saw the news on television the next day.
Darpin, meanwhile, received news of his wife's death late last night by Foreign Ministry officials.
"I was shocked, I couldn't believe it," the 37-year-old told AA.
During his March visit to Yanbu, his wife had told him to pray for her future and look after their three children.
"Now, I have to accept her death," he said.
On Thursday, the Indonesian government summoned the Saudi ambassador to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs after learning that Karni and Siti had been beheaded without official warning.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters that it was recognized internationally that notification had to be given at least three days before execution.
"That is our main issue. It's not that suddenly there was an execution. We didn't know when it would take place," he said.
"Still, we took over a hundred steps to try to free [Siti] from execution," he added.
Karni went to Saudi Arabia in 2009 to work as a domestic worker for a family in Yanbu. On killing the child - who had been in her care - she attempted suicide by drinking liquid floor cleaner, but survived.
Anis Hidayah, executive director of Jakarta-based Migrant Care, claimed in a press release Friday that Karni's execution was related to the Indonesian government's plan to execute a number of foreign nationals currently on death row for trafficking in drugs.
The most high profile cases are two Australians - Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - convicted of trying to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005.
Hidayah urged Indonesia to abandon its support for the death penalty.
"The policy to execute foreign nationals is actually holding [back] the Indonesian government," Anis said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasir, meanwhile, has denied there is a link between the two, saying that Indonesia is not willing to compromise its stand on convicted narcotics smugglers.
"This case has nothing to do with Indonesia's attitude to the death penalty," he said, adding that Saudi Arabia had not only executed Indonesian citizens, but also those from other countries.
Since Jan. 2015, Saudi Arabia has executed 61 people, of whom 36 were Saudi citizens.
The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry has said that 36 nationals are currently undergoing legal proceedings in Saudi courts, and are threatened with the death penalty.
It added that they have been charged with criminal cases, such as witchcraft, adultery and murder.
Since January this year, Indonesia has executed six people for drug trafficking.
