Indonesia has filed an official protest to Saudi Arabia after it executed an Indonesian maid without notifying its consular staff or her family.

Tuti Tursilawati, a mother of one, had been convicted of murdering her employer, who workers rights’ group Migrant Care said was trying to rape her at the time.

Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president, criticised Saudi Arabia’s action on Wednesday, saying that his government had demanded better protection of Indonesian workers in the country.

"We have called Saudi Arabia's foreign minister and conveyed our protest," Mr Widodo was quoted as saying by the office of his cabinet secretary.

Ms Tursilawati, who was convicted in 2011, was executed on Monday in the city of Thaif, marking the fourth such case of Saudi Arabia carrying out the death sentence on an Indonesian migrant worker without prior notice in the past three years. Eighteen more Indonesians remain on death row.