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Mataram. Amid the recent revelations about the high number of Indonesians currently facing the death sentence in Malaysia, one family is speaking up about their efforts to get their loved one’s sentence commuted.

Mohamad Saleh, 60, said on Sunday in Mataram that he believed his son, Edy Saputra, was innocent of the murder charge for which he had been convicted.

“I miss my son,” Saleh said. “I want him freed from his death sentence.”

In 2006, Edy was arrested in the Malaysian state of Sarawak for robbing a house there and killing its owner.

Endang Susilowati, an activist from the Panca Karsa Foundation, an advocacy group involved in the case, said that throughout his trial at a court in the state capital of Kuching, Edy always denied he had murdered the man.

“Edy always said Erwan [a fellow migrant worker from West Nusa Tenggara] was the one who killed the man, not him,” Endang said.

“During the trial, there was no evidence to show that Edy had murdered the victim.”

Edy departed for Entikong, Malaysia, in April 2006 through an illegal placement agency. Without any official work or immigration documents, Edy and a group of seven other workers from Indonesia moved from one job to another before finally ending up at a plantation in Miri, Endang said.

She added that after six months there, Edy had still not received a salary or the fake passport he was promised by his employer, so he decided to escape from the plantation with Erwan and return home to Indonesia.

However, on their way they ended up robbing what they believed was an empty house in Serian, 65 kilometers from Kuching. The owner surprised them in the act, and in the ensuing tussle they killed him, Endang said.

They split up immediately afterward, and Edy was later arrested. Erwan, meanwhile, remains at large.

Since 2007, Edy’s family has sought to appeal the death sentence handed down to him, even going to Kuching in March 2008 to file an appeal, but to no avail.

Zaenuddin, a relative of Edy’s, said that with no knowledge of his current condition, the family could only hope that he had not been executed yet.

“Maybe he’s still alive because what he said about not killing the victim is true,” he said. “That’s what we believe in as well.”

He added that he hoped the Indonesian government would help get Edy’s sentence commuted from death.

Agus Triyanto, the labor attache at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, said his office was “trying its best” to help Indonesians there with legal troubles.

“Every case is tightly monitored,” he said.

As many as 177 Indonesians in Malaysia are currently either on death row or face charges that could see them receive the death sentence, according to the Indonesian government.

Of that figure, 35 are implicated in murder cases.