Manama: An Indonesia domestic helper who was sentenced to death for killing the four-year-old daughter of her sponsors is to be executed on Thursday.
This comes after another Indonesian domestic helper was executed on Tuesday after being convicted of beating a Saudi woman to death in 1999.
Khalid Al Shahri, the father of Tala, the victim, said that he had been informed about the date and that the execution would take place inside the prison of the Red Sea city of Yanbu, Saudi media reported.
He added that he was not ready to discuss pardoning the helper who was sentenced to death by a Saudi court in March 2013.
The helper who had been with the family for three years used a cleaver to end Tala’s life while the father and mother were at work and the other two sisters at school.
Tala’s murder in October 2012 shook Saudi Arabia to the core and triggered a wave of sympathy with the family, especially that the father caused an accident in which two people were killed as he was rushing home to help his distraught wife, a middle school teacher in Yanbu industrial city, after she discovered the crime.
Giving his version of what happened on the day of the multi-fold tragedy, Al Shahri, who worked for oil giant Aramco in the western city of Yanbu, said he received a phone call from his wife informing him that she could not enter their house.
She said she could not get any answer from the domestic helper or Tala even though she pounded the door and the windows.
“My first thought was that it could be the electricity because my daughter always tried to charge her iPod,” he said.
The father said he rushed home.
“However, I had an accident that resulted in the death of a man and injuries to his daughter. I called my wife to tell her that I had an accident and that she needed to act. She called the civil defence and alerted our neighbours,” he said.
The servicemen entered the house through the window and opened the door.
“When my wife got in she started calling our daughter’s name and when she heard no answer, she went up the stairs to the first floor. She [went] to the bedroom. There she found Tala with blood dripping from her neck. She realised that Tala was dead and went downstairs where she fainted. Yara, our daughter, also lost consciousness after she understood that something terrible had happened. My wife was rushed to hospital.”
Al Shahri said he did not know about his daughter’s death until 24 hours later.
“I was kept under observation in hospital following the accident. Relatives who visited me told me that my family was fine and informed me about Tala’s death much later. I resiliently accepted her fate and God’s decision. I am deeply grateful to all the people, colleagues and officials who stood by us during these critical times,” he said.
Al Shahri and his wife have four daughters, Yara, 16, Luma, 15, Jana (10) and Tala.
Several women teachers used the tragedy to press the education ministry to open up nurseries in schools and help provide day care for their babies and young children.
They said that most teachers, including the victim’s mother, were forced to leave their babies and toddlers at home in the care of helpers and that the situation was not always comfortable.
