Tuti Tursilawati’s death calls for a critical review of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record

At the end of October 2018, Tuti Tursilawati became the latest Indonesian migrant worker to be executed by Saudi Arabia. She was found guilty of murdering her employer’s father in 2010. Tursilawati had pleaded self-defence against frequent sexual harassment. She was mercilessly beheaded, despite desperate attempts by the Indonesian government and various human rights organisations to intercede on her behalf; her family is still reeling in shock. But Tursilawati ’s case is not unique, it is just another example in the long list of human rights violations that the Saudi kingdom perpetuates on a daily basis. The Saudi kingdom accorded no courtesy and exercised minimal diplomatic ethics in notifying the Indonesian authorities, or the deceased’s family, that Tursilawati’s execution would be carried out. This illustrates their blatant disregard and disrespect for protocols accorded to nation states and affected families of such drastic punitive measures imposed by the Saudi regime. We mus...